
Class 

Book 

Copyright 1*J ._ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIE 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 

Malaysia : Nature's Wonderland 

16mo, net, 35 cents 

India, Malaysia, and the Philippines 

12mo, net, $1.00 




BISHOP JAMES M. THOBURN 



THOBURN— 
CALLED OF GOD 



BY 

W. F. OLDHAM 

Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church 




THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN 
NEW YORK CINCINNATI 



Ufa 



Copyright, 1918, by 
W. F. OLDHAM 



NOV 22 iSiS 
©CLA506680 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTEB PAGE 

Foreword 7 

I. The Man for India 13 

II. Thoburn — Early Days 20 

III. Unconscious Preparation and Con- 

version 23 

IV. Called to Preach 35 

V. Called to Foreign Missionary 

Service 41 

VI. Called to Face a Life Task 54 

VII. Called to Momentous Experi- 
ences: Early Baptism of Low- 
Caste People 61 

VIII. Called to Help Create a Woman's 

Missionary Movement 71 

IX. Called Across the Ganges 81 

X. Led to Summon William Taylor . . 86 

XI. Prepared and Called to Calcutta 96 

XII. Called to Farther India 109 

XIII. Called to a Great Adventure 125 

XIV. Called to the Missionary Bishop- 

ric 139 

XV. Called to the Farthest East 148 

XVI. Called to a Quiet Hour 162 

XVII. Questions and Answers 170 

XVIII. Personal Tribute from Bishop 

Warne 177 



FOREWORD 

Two men have profoundly affected the 
writer during his life, in those deeper realms 
of thought and feeling and purpose into 
which we consciously admit but few persons. 
Both of these men have become bishops of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church. James 
W. Bashford continues in the fullness of 
matured powers not only to strengthen the 
heart of the young church and wisely to 
direct its plans in the great waking life of 
China, but also to influence powerfully the 
public life of the land of his manhood's adop- 
tion. The other has lived out the full meas- 
ure of his active years, and, as missionary, 
statesman, and builder, has won for himself 
a unique place in the annals of missionary 
achievement. He still lives among us with 
undimmed vision for the stars that fill his 
sky. Amid the scenes of his youth, he 
lingers amongst those who love him, an in- 
spiration and a blessing. 

At his request the writer hesitatingly un- 
dertakes this brief recital of the capital 

7 



FOREWORD 

events of a most eventful life. While he 
hesitates, lest his unskilled hand may fail to 
portray the great inspiring picture of a 
nobly lived life, he yet recognizes certain 
elements of fitness in being chosen as the 
chronicler of the outstanding events of the 
Bishop's life. For he knows somewhat in- 
timately India and the neighboring islands ; 
was the junior associated with the Bishop in 
the founding of the Malaysia Mission — an 
achievement which the Bishop has always 
accounted his cc magnum opus" — and, above 
all, holds the subject of this book in deep, 
reverent affection. And lovers are the only 
folks who see, for they, led by affection, go 
past all outward seeming and see the inner 
truth and beauty. 

To reassure the reader, let it be said at 
once that Bishop Thoburn's voluminous 
records of his own life will be largely drawn 
upon. All that this editor claims to do is 
to so arrange the data as to put before the 
reader the man in the high moments of his 
lif ework. And, in these, Thoburn will speak 
for himself. The writer's words are merely 
the thread on which the pearls of this rich 
personality are strung. 



FOREWORD 

And, let it be noted, this does not design 
to be a "biography." The Bishop's most 
earnest wish is, not that his life story be 
recorded, but that specific attention be called 
to the fact of the divine leading in all the 
important episodes of his life. He is among 
those who hold the belief , with something of 
intensity, that God's Spirit guides humble 
and inquiring believers every step of their 
earthly path ; and his desire is to reaffirm this 
truth and glorify the covenant-keeping God 
in reciting how, in one man's life, the voice 
that has promised to say, "This is the way, 
walk ye in it," has sounded in his ears and 
has been literally verified in his life. He is 
jealous that from the Christian heritage 
shall not be abstracted, by any play of ra- 
tionalistic thought, the comfort and the 
strength vouchsafed to the Christian believer 
who knows he is "called" not only to a special 
career, but also, that in the various steps of 
that career he may expect the guidance of 
the "pillar of cloud by day" and "the pillar 
of fire by night." 

In the following conversation, which is re- 
ported verbatim, the Bishop speaks for him- 
self: 



FOREWORD 

"Bishop, why do you wish me to make a 
record of the outstanding events of your 
life?" 

"My immediate purpose is this, that God 
has been in my life at important points, from 
time to time; and so unmistakably has he 
been with me that I feel not only that it is 
my duty to confess what I have received 
directly from him, but I feel that I owe it 
to my fellow men. In other words, my life 
furnishes a testimony to the fact that God 
has been with me, not only in a general way, 
all the time, but especially at set times and 
in distinctive ways his presence has been un- 
mistakable. And I would that all who know 
me could have the same tokens of the Divine 
Presence that I have enjoyed. So far as the 
past is concerned, my mind rests upon cer- 
tain instances, such as when I left college, I 
believed that God led me out to become a 
preacher of the message which he would give 
me, and it has been so all along the way." 

"How have these divine illuminations 
come to you?" 

"It would be difficult to describe it in a 
way which another would understand. Prob- 
ably temperament has something to do with 

10 



FOREWORD 

the method of illumination. But while, in 
a general way, I have gone through these 
experiences day by day, yet there have been 
periods when there has been something like 
special illumination of the mind and soul/ 5 

"With a clear direction as to which way 
you should move?" 

"Yes." 

"Are you conscious at the time of the 
separation between what I might call the 
divine impression, and the workings of your 
own mind on the data?" 

"No. My mind is in an inquiring mood, 
for a shorter or longer time, and then comes 
an impression which removes doubts and 
gives me a consciousness that I am standing 
on firm ground." 

It is to illustrate this truth of the Bishop's 
claim, that God has distinct direction for all 
the courses of life, that we sketch the chief 
events of his own career, letting him tell the 
inner sources of motives and origins. 

If the reading of the brief volume shall 
quicken faith and deepen trust in an ever 
present God, the Bishop's object will be ac- 
complished. Wm r Oldham. 

11 



CHAPTER I 

THE MAN FOR INDIA 

The great contribution that the home 
church makes to the peoples in foreign lands 
is the gift of her choicest sons and daughters. 
When opportunities for medical help, for 
education, and for sanitation and industrial 
development are opened to backward peo- 
ples, or to civilizations that have not kept 
step with the movements that have brought 
us to the strange new day in which we live, 
great service is rendered. But when, with 
these gifts of material equipment, the church 
sends carefully chosen men and women to so 
use this equipment as to quicken the peo- 
ple's understanding and arouse the slumber- 
ing spirit, or to quicken it so that it may 
throw off the spiritual fetters that arrest its 
progress, the value of the gift is multiplied 
many times. The doctor, if a "living soul," is 
worth many times the hospital building; the 
teacher, if a "quickening spirit," is a greater 
factor in bringing new life to a people than a 
complete set of university buildings. In- 

13 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

deed, it may boldly be said that not only is 
the contribution of chosen lives the greater 
contribution, but it gives significance to all 
the rest. 

The increasing care of the church in select- 
ing these agents of the gospel, that only duly 
equipped and God-anointed men shall be 
sent, attests our deepening belief in the mat- 
ter. It is, therefore, with devout thankful- 
ness to the great Father who holds all men 
in his loving thought that we call attention 
to the peculiar worth and felicity of the gift 
the Methodist Episcopal Church made to 
the peoples of India when, following the 
leadings of the Holy Spirit, James M. Tho- 
burn was selected and sent to that great, 
peculiar, and difficult field. 

Let us consider briefly the field and the 
man. India is peculiarly the "Orient." 
Here, more than anywhere else, life is held 
in molds or runs in channels most remote 
from the thoughts, or even the comprehen- 
sion, of the West. But at the heart of this 
strange and complex life is a burning, pas- 
sionate regard for religion, and with it a 
dreamy, mystic conception of what religion 
is and wherein it consists. Strange and 

14 



THE MAN FOR INDIA 

subtle philosophies, rooted in pantheism or 
in thoroughgoing agnosticism, have filtered 
down into the poetic and imaginative soul 
of even the plain and unlearned people. And 
the masses, though unreasoning and inar- 
ticulate, are yet spiritually penetrated with 
a vague sense that life is illusory and tran- 
sient. Add to this an almost universal pre- 
possession to belief in the transmigration of 
the soul and a devotion and surrender to the 
customs and traditions of the past. It will 
at once be seen how this fragment of "the 
all" passing through its illusory experiences, 
with its "now" fixed in the matrix of all its 
yesterdays and shaping all its morrows, 
would vehemently resist any teaching of a 
discrete individual soul, with the possibility 
of its seeking and finding in a Saviour God 
both pardon for past sin and power to assert 
its moral sovereignty and to exercise its 
spiritual energy, moment by moment, as the 
days come and go. Further, add to this a 
very deep pride of race, a high religious con- 
ceit, and a strong suspicion of all things new 
and unfamiliar, and then judge the charac- 
ter of the gospel agent whom you would 
select to send to India. 

15 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

We would immediately pass over many a 
man admirably fitted to serve at home, or 
among some differently constituted people 
— the man of dogmatic speech ; the man with- 
out delicate antennae to discern and quick 
susceptibility to feel and sympathize with 
the earnest spiritual struggles and aspira- 
tions of men of utterly other mental training 
and outlook ; the man whose religious teach- 
ing can all be conveyed in clear, logical 
propositions, and to whom all movements 
must be in direct straight lines to escape the 
reproach of insincerity; the man without 
reverence for the past and, therefore, with- 
out any fellow feeling for that mental atti- 
tude which greatly dreads to assert the in- 
dividual as over against both the solid tradi- 
tions of the centuries and the social caste 
organism in which those traditions are pre- 
served ; the man of bold, venturesome spirit, 
who knows nothing of what it costs a trem- 
bling, hesitant soul that has been built into a 
social and religious fabric, like a brick in a 
wall, to seek to break out of that wall to the 
dismay and, indeed, to the rending of the 
integrity of the whole order to which it be- 
longs. In a word, your straightforward, 

16 



THE MAN FOR INDIA 

honest, vigorous, sympathetic, and aggres- 
sively energetic man, bent on taking short 
cuts everywhere, and having all others go 
across lots with him, is not the man you 
would select for dreamy, nonventuresome, 
conservative, staid India. 

In Thoburn, boy though he was when he 
first appeared as a missionary, were the op- 
posites of all the undesirable qualities we 
have sketched, for he strangely combined 
great personal faith and conviction of the 
divine truth of the Christian religion with 
the utmost appreciation of the blind strug- 
gles toward the Light of many a devout 
Hindu "seeker after God." He seemed, 
with less effort than most Western men, to 
enter into the subtle, mystic thinking of 
India. Himself a singular blend of the mys- 
tical enthusiast and the clear-seeing, prac- 
tically minded man of America, in him the 
East and West met and each supplemented 
and fulfilled the other as in very, very few. 
The clear, penetrating intellect for affairs; 
the eye to see, with capacity to do, is in him 
so happily blended with a mysticism that 
borders on the realms of the superstitious 
without ever touching the line, that we might 

17 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

truthfully know one side of him without ever 
suspecting the other. In the commingling 
and the balance of these very diverse ele- 
ments, however, has been his marvelous 
strength. Without this analysis of this man 
we could neither understand nor explain the 
accomplishments of his fruitful life. 

Then, too, he is a religious democrat. He 
has known nothing of race prejudice nor of 
social caste feeling. Thrown with men of 
the highest social and official positions, he 
has ever been eager to approach and has been 
easily accessible to the low-caste and the out- 
caste of all races. Men and women have al- 
ways been to him the subjects of his deep 
concern; and he has ever seen not the 
drunken white man, or harlot, or low-caste 
Hindu, or abusive Mohammedan, nor the 
military general or commissioner or high- 
placed man of wealth, but in all and each he 
has seen an immortal being, the defaced 
image of God, with infinite possibilities and, 
therefore of large potential value. And he 
has been the servant and the brother of all, 
seeking to recover each to the restored image 
of his Saviour God. A man he is of deep 
religious fervor, of unshaken religious con- 

18 



THE MAN FOR INDIA 

viction, of intense belief that the gospel he 
bears is the only real hope of mankind — a 
man, too, of a loving heart, of democratic 
spirit, holding all men in reverence for the 
possibilities that are in them ; with eyes to see 
God in unusual settings and to see large 
values in truth under unusual forms and 
amid unfamiliar surroundings; a man with 
kindness of heart, of sacrificial spirit, eager 
to serve and, with it all a man of gracious 
manners and winsome speech. 

How splendid the gift to India the readers 
of this book will see, if the writer can at all 
interpret to them the real James M. Tho- 
burn. 



19 



CHAPTER II 
THOBURN— EARLY DAYS 

"If you would build a man, begin with his 
grandmother." Thoburn's grandmother was 
"a woman of strong character, notable cour- 
age, and decided views in both religious and 
political matters." Her husband was nomi- 
nally a Unitarian; but, seeking controversy 
with a visiting Methodist preacher, he was 
so impressed by that doughty traveler that 
the Crawford home in the little village of 
Rallo, County Antrim, Ireland, became the 
local headquarters of Methodism. 

From this Irish home came Jane Lyle 
Crawford, a young woman of marked 
quality, tinged with the mystic quality that 
she was so notably to impart to her son. 

Meanwhile, in another Irish village named 
Mollusk, near Belfast, another Methodist 
itinerant, meeting a young Irishman stand- 
ing in the door of his widowed mother's cot- 
tage, shook hands with him heartily and 
asked his name. 

20 



THOBURN— EARLY DAYS 

"My name is Matthew Thoburn." 

"Well, Matthew, I am going to preach 
this evening in yonder cottage; won't you 
come and hear me and bring your mother 
with you?" 

The couple went. That evening young 
Matthew was informally left in spiritual 
charge of the deeply impressed company as 
"class leader" until the preacher should re- 
turn. A class leader and an effective ex- 
horter Matthew Thoburn remained through 
life. It was when addressing a meeting 
Matthew met Jane Lyle Crawford. 

She recognized in him at once the very 
person whom she believed God had shown 
her in a dream of the night when, sorrow- 
ing for her dead father, God had strength- 
ened her heart by assuring her she had a life- 
work to do, and showed her the partner of 
her life career. This belief in visions and 
experiences of them recurs strangely in her 
son's life. 

The Thoburns soon after their marriage 
sailed for America and settled in Saint 
Clairsville, Ohio, where was born on the 
seventh of March, 1836, their seventh child, 
a son, whom they named James Mills. Other 

21 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

children of this Irish family in America 
were an older sister — Ellen, afterward Mrs. 
General B. R. Cowen, for years the splendid 
leader of the Woman's Foreign Missionary 
forces in the Cincinnati Branch; and Isa- 
bella Thoburn of sainted memory, a woman 
of rare power and ability, one of the first two 
women missionaries of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church to any foreign field and the 
founder of the first Christian Woman's Col- 
lege in Asia — the Isabella Thoburn College, 
in Lucknow, India. "God bless the Irish." 
He does ; and has often used them to convey 
his blessing, as when he sent two such as the 
Thoburns, James and Isabella, to India. 



22 



CHAPTER III 

UNCONSCIOUS PREPARATION 
AND CONVERSION 

James was a bright lad, and his discern- 
ing mother anticipated greatness for her boy, 
as mothers have ever done. When coming 
from Belfast, in Ireland, to her brother in 
Guernsey County, Ohio, before James was 
born, she saw beside the road the handsom- 
est building she had yet seen in America. It 
was a four-story brick building which still 
stands beautiful and unshamed among nu- 
merous and handsome buildings which now 
surround it on the campus of one of west- 
ern Pennsylvania's best-equipped schools — 
Allegheny College. It was Bentley Hall 
— and many an Alleghenian who reads these 
lines will both recall with affection old Bent- 
ley Hall, and send thoughts of gratitude 
and thanks to President Crawford, whose 
magic wand has surrounded Bentley Hall 
with other noble buildings. 

When James was fourteen and considered 
by his father to be a very bright lad, they 

23 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

were visited by a young college graduate, 
the late Dr. W. A. Davidson. 

"One evening when he was with us, as we 
sat around our hospitable fireplace, my 
father asked him to test my knowledge of 
algebra, remarking at the same time that I 
had been through my algebra more than 
once. The preacher very readily undertook 
the task, but finding that I knew nothing 
about the science, except the method of 'do- 
ing the sums,' he turned abruptly to my 
father and said, 'Your little boy knows noth- 
ing about algebra.' To me this was a start- 
ling announcement. The teaching of those 
days was often imperfect, and I had not yet 
learned how to study on the independent 
basis. Our young pastor then explained the 
situation and kindly advised me to go back 
to the first page of arithmetic and begin all 
over again. He added that he would advise 
me to go to Allegheny College, where he 
himself had graduated, and not to rest until 
I had completed a full college course. I 
resolved to follow his advice, but little 
dreamed that in the early future a way 
would be opened for me, but only through 
bereavement and sorrow." 

24 



PREPARATION— CONVERSION 

His father died, leaving a small estate to 
be divided among many children. But it 
was not the Thoburn way to be discouraged. 
The mother managed to find a little money 
for her son. "She gave me $162.50, and, 
telling me to spend this carefully, she sent 
me away, with her blessing." 

"I understood perfectly well that this 
small sum would not suffice to keep me very 
long, but I was still young, with some of 
m y boyhood and all of my youth ahead of 
me, and did not for a moment feel anxious 
for my financial future. I used all possible 
economy, and still remember that when I 
returned at the end of seven months I had 
expended only $87.50." It was character- 
istic of the independent spirit of the boy, 
even as early as in his fifteenth year, that, on 
arriving in Meadville, Pennsylvania, instead 
of "calling on President Barker and deliver- 
ing my letter, I set off immediately to find a 
boarding house, and in the course of the 
afternoon succeeded in finding a good place 
on the brow of the hill overlooking the town 
and about half a mile from the village. Four 
young men and a boy somewhat younger 
than myself made up the company of stu- 

25 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

dents who shared with me the shelter of my 
new home. On Monday morning, August 
23, 1851, my name was enrolled as a student 
of Allegheny College, and I selected my 
studies without asking or being asked a ques- 
tion of any kind. When this was done to 
my satisfaction I went in the afternoon to 
call on Dr. Barker, our college president, 
who read my letter of introduction, asked 
me a few questions, and expressed himself as 
satisfied with my arrangements which I had 
made. Six years later I received my diploma 
from his hands." 

Concerning his religious condition at this 
time, he says: "I was not a member of the 
church, simply a well-meaning boy, in my 
fifteenth year. I had never been prayerless 
in my life. From my earliest consciousness 
I had been taught to pray, even if I had to 
do so in silence, or probably after getting 
into bed. I never omitted it. I took no part 
in the religious life of the college, until my 
awakening. During my second year at col- 
lege, at the time of revival, I became very 
deeply awakened. This was increased by 
the conversion of my brother David, who 
was with me. His conversion was clear, and 



PREPARATION— CONVERSION 

the effect was permanent in his case. I went 
forward for prayers in a great religious re- 
vival then in progress, at the old brick 
church, but found no light. The meeting 
was managed very badly. A boy such as I 
got little attention, and the advice given was 
simply random expressions which led no- 
where. The college president gave me a 
week's absence from my recitations, but even 
when alone I made no progress." 

The reason is evident; for young Tho- 
burn was eminently reasonable in his ap- 
proaches to the spiritual Hfe. He has never 
been favorable to emotional outbursts. Per- 
haps he has not recognized their value with 
lethargic natures, where there is knowledge 
that needs to be galvanized into action. 

The entire episode is so important that a 
full statement from the Bishop follows: 

"On Sunday morning I went to church 
with a young man from Pittsburgh. As we 
went down to town I was full of spirits and 
quite gay in my manner, but all the time I 
was more or less moved by feelings which I 
did not understand. We entered the church, 
which was crowded, and found seats in a 
remote corner of the gallery. Bishop Kings- 

27 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

ley, who was then professor of mathematics 
in our college, preached. His theme was the 
final judgment given in the book of Revela- 
tion, 'And I saw a great white throne,' etc. 
The familiar words impressed me deeply, 
and as the sermon proceeded I began to be- 
come agitated in a peculiar way. The ser- 
mon was impressive and at times eloquent, 
but a part of it seemed to me speculative 
and in a measure weak. But I was soon in 
no mood to notice the merits or demerits of 
the sermon. Like Paul in olden times, the 
professor reasoned of righteousness and 
judgment, and the impression made upon 
me was like that made upon the sinner in 
olden times. I trembled — trembled until I 
found myself trying to hold my knees steady 
lest my student friend should notice my agi- 
tation. But I soon became oblivious to all 
considerations of this kind, and determined 
that I would try and make my peace with 
God at once. 

"At the close of his sermon the professor 
called on all who were awakened to a sense 
of their danger to come and kneel at the 
altar, while the people prayed for them. My 
mind was fully made up, and I turned at 

28 



PREPARATION— CONVERSION 

once to my friend and proposed that we go 
forward together. A blow in the face could 
hardly have startled him more. He was al- 
most dumb with astonishment, but managed 
to decline my proposal. Dr. Bobbins, who 
sat near us, overheard my remark, and kindly 
advised me to go alone. This I would have 
done in any case, and I rose, picked my way 
down among the young men and boys who 
crowded the stairs, and walked forward and 
fell upon my knees and wept bitterly. When 
the singing ceased Dr. Barker was asked to 
lead in prayer. He was evidently deeply 
moved, and began to pray in language which 
I could easily adopt as my own. I have 
often thought that if the people around had 
only kept quiet so that I could have heard 
that prayer to its end I might have been led 
step by step to the cross, and thus have found 
Christ as a living Saviour at the very out- 
set. But it was not so to be. A score of men 
and probably women too, began to pray in 
loud tones, and in a moment all was con- 
fusion around me. No one came to instruct 
me, and, indeed, it seemed as if no one 
thought further about me. I had gone for- 
ward for prayers, and all took it for granted 

29 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

that in some way or another I could come out 
all right. For five successive nights this 
routine continued. I could hear nothing and 
understand nothing. Now and then I would 
hear some one shouting above me, 'Look up, 
my brother/ or some such expression of the 
kind, but only once in the course of five eve- 
nings was an intelligent effort made to find 
out my real condition and teach me how to 
trust in Christ. This was done by Profes- 
sor Hamnett, who spent some time in trying 
to find out my difficulties and to lead me 
into the light. 

"In later years I have often been led to 
protest against the way in which this kind 
of work is too often done. In many places 
invitations are given for awakened persons 
to come forward for prayers, but when they 
accept the call a scene of disorder takes the 
place of intelligent prayer, and instruction 
is made nothing of. Once not very long ago 
I heard a preacher urging the people to 
pray aloud and all together : 'People may not 
understand you, but God understands you. 
Don't be afraid to let your voices be heard,' 
etc. In Paul's day it was not considered a 
light thing to pray with the understanding, 

30 



PREPARATION— CONVERSION 

but in some places this counts for little 
now." 

Following this he joined the church, but 
God would not let one for whom and from 
whom he expected great things, to rest in 
any such "twilight of the soul." 

His money having given out, he was 
obliged to find a place as a teacher. This 
he did in Lloydsville, Ohio ; and, while teach- 
ing there, a revival of religion commenced, 
and the method of its progress was much 
better suited to the brooding young teacher. 
He says that while attending the village 
church a revival of religion occurred in 
which many young people were converted. 
The pastor made the announcement that 
Mr. Thoburn would lead the class meeting 
consisting of these young Christians. "He 
added that the first meeting would take 
place in the schoolhouse the next morning 
at nine o'clock. This was startling news. I 
had never prayed audibly in my life. I knew 
nothing about some mysteries of the spirit- 
ual life with which most of the members of 
my class had already become familiar, but at 
last I saw it was imperative that I should 
obey. I accordingly went to the meeting 

31 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

and found a list of twenty-seven members 
and probationers who had been assigned to 
me for spiritual oversight. I told them 
frankly how I stood, but added that I in- 
tended to do my best, and leave the result 
to God. A visitor led the devotions that day, 
and before the next Sunday came round I 
was in the light, and found it a joy to pray, 
or speak, or do anything that came to me in 
the way of my duty as a servant of Jesus 
Christ. 

"In these later days I often hear in song 
the words of the refrain, 'Trust and obey.' 
I had tried to trust, but had assumed that 
I could not obey. Now the light had come, 
and life had become sweet, and the service of 
Christ was like daily food. The days went 
pleasantly and rapidly by, and all too soon 
the date came round at which I had deter- 
mined to return to college. My class of 
twenty-seven had increased to over fifty, and 
sweet harmony and love had prevailed in all 
our meetings and social intercourse. If I 
had found it hard to gain an entrance into 
this little village, I found it much harder to 
get away from it. The directors were ready 
to meet any and every possible demand, and 

32 



PREPARATION— CONVERSION 

the people with one voice begged me to re- 
main. The circuit preacher, the Rev. N. C. 
Worthington, advised and urged me to enter 
the Conference at once, and assured me that 
the door was wide open for me to enter. But 
something, a feeling which I could not define, 
impelled me to go back to college. I was 
only nineteen, and very youthful in appear- 
ance, and wisely judged that I was too young 
for the responsibilities of Conference mem- 
bership, even if the question of my call to 
the work of preaching had been clearly and 
definitely settled. As yet, however, this was 
still an open question with me. I was not 
sure that God had chosen me for this work, 
and appreciated the danger of a mistake in 
a matter in which there was so much at stake, 
bbth for the church and myself. I accord- 
ingly bade adieu to Lloydsville and the dear 
circle of young people to whom I had be- 
come greatly attached, and in the early 
autumn returned to Meadville and entered 
the junior class in Allegheny College." 

Thus did God clearly lead this young dis- 
ciple into the clear light of the knowledge 
of personal salvation, and the second great 
step was taken in the fitting of a strong mis- 

33 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

sionary for that wonderful career in which, 
amid strange people and in other tongues, 
he was to declare unto many the gospel of 
"the remission of sins" through faith in the 
atoning Saviour. 



34 



CHAPTER IV 
CALLED TO PREACH 

Is there a distinctive "call to preach," or 
is much of what is so recorded in religious 
biography the mere subjective impression of 
the young mind gathered largely from tra- 
ditions current in pious circles? 

If a young man is a sincere Christian, has 
a good education and agreeable manners, 
possesses some powers of utterance and some 
facility in making friends and in securing 
the cooperation of others in religious pro- 
jects — when he considers his life work — may 
he not confidently assume that in the or- 
dained ministry he will find a suitable career? 

The question is raised not to attempt an 
answer, or even to raise a discussion, but 
simply to record how one young man found 
his way into this sacred calling, who has 
proved, in his own case at least, the validity 
of the claim that God, in this most practical 
day, still continues to distinctly convey to the 

35 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

inquiring mind his will regarding the par- 
ticular investment of the individual life. 

On this subject Bishop Thoburn feels 
deeply, and said in regard to his own per- 
sonal experience: "When I began to preach 
I soon began to feel the need of a clear and 
definite call to that work. I had conscien- 
tiously come to the conclusion that God would 
have me preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, 
but when I seemed to preach in vain, when 
people listened and yet did not seem to hear, 
and when no tangible result appeared in any 
quarter, I began to feel that life under such 
conditions would be insupportable. One 
afternoon during a series of meetings in 
Marlborough, Ohio, I went out into the 
woods near the village, and kneeling alone 
among the branches of a fallen maple tree, 
I talked the matter over with my Saviour, 
and there alone with him I received my clear 
and distinct commission to go and preach his 
gospel to dying men. I heard no words, but 
the commission could not have been more 
specific and clear had the visible Son of God 
said to me, 'Go preach my gospel/ From 
that hour I could preach with or without 
visible results. A foundation of adamant 

36 



CALLED TO PREACH 

had glided under my feet, and I knew for 
Whom I was to speak, and what the message 
was with which I had been intrusted." 

He says on the general subject: "The 
whole subject of divine calls should be 
studied not only more carefully, but also 
more generally than has been usual in the 
past. In a great multitude of cases no 
special direction is needed, but when it is 
needed, to what extent is it expected, and 
how are God's tokens to be interpreted? A 
very wide door opens before us when we ask 
these questions, and God has been explicit 
in promising help . 'In all thy ways acknowl- 
edge him, and he shall direct thy paths.' I 
was left in no doubt or uncertainty concern- 
ing my call to missionary service in India. 
Many tokens were given, and many incidents 
were made to 'work together.' ' 

His mind was now fixed. His salary was 
but one hundred dollars a year, and more 
lucrative employment was offered him. But 
he knew he was "called to preach." His 
ministry in the homeland was brief, for he 
was soon to go to his real life task in a far 
country. But how intelligent, sane, and 
fruitful his home ministry was in its less 

37 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

than two years may be learned from his own 
record. 

"My last special work before leaving my 
circuit was in the village of Greensburgh, 
Ohio. My senior preacher had been detained 
by illness in his family, and had asked me to 
take charge of a series of revival meetings 
at that place in his absence, and I was more 
than glad to do so. Up to this time I had 
never had charge of meetings of this kind, 
and for several reasons I coveted the privi- 
lege. The village was not large, but it con- 
tained three churches, and a majority of the 
people were communicants. I met with few 
difficulties at the outset, but very soon dis- 
covered that we were going to have enough 
to do. When I requested awakened persons 
to come forward for prayers there was an 
immediate response. Quite a number came, 
and there seemed to be deep and genuine 
feeling on the part of most of them. But the 
church was small, and the vacant space 
around the pulpit was limited, and it was 
simply impossible to instruct the seekers in- 
telligently. Although much good resulted, 
yet the main result was not satisfactory. Sin- 
ners were not converted. The persons who 

38 



CALLED TO PREACH 

came out publicly to ask for prayers were 
in some cases crowded aside, and the general 
impression made was unfavorable. 

"After vainly trying to overcome this dif- 
ficulty and finding it impossible to do so in 
such cramped quarters, I announced I would 
be in the church at 4 o'clock the following 
afternoon, and would meet any persons who 
wished to have a talk with me about their 
spiritual interests. To my surprise, when I 
repaired to the church at the appointed hour 
I found so large a company that it seemed 
like a congregation met for a service, and 
the difficulty I experienced was that there 
were too many for a free talk with each 
separately. I therefore spoke to the entire 
company. The result surprised my expecta- 
tions. Many professed to see the way of 
faith clearly, and to emerge out of darkness, 
or at least twilight, into the clear light of 
God. All through these long years I have 
remembered with pleasure and gratitude 
those meetings which I was permitted to 
hold on the eve of my departure for my 
home in the distant East, and in later 
days I have often found occasion to repeat 
the plan pursued in that early day. All per- 

39 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

sons, especially all young persons, when 
seriously concerned about their spiritual in- 
terests, not only need instruction in the gen- 
eral sense of that word, but they need it in 
spiritual measure, line upon line, precept 
upon precept, and the utmost care should 
be taken to adapt the teaching in such cases 
to the special condition of the party con- 
cerned." 



40 



CHAPTER V 

CALLED TO FOREIGN MISSION- 
ARY SERVICE 

In the days of his unconscious preparation 
for the work before him, when he was but 
seventeen years old, he purchased a book not 
too attractively named Youthful Piety, 
which "contained two sermons by Dr. Olin." 
The reading of these powerfully affected 
him: 

"One day during the play hour I walked 
out under the trees and was reading one of 
these sermons when I came upon this pas- 
sage: 'Several of our great benevolent enter- 
prises which are rapidly extending their in- 
fluence to the remotest nations of the earth, 
were projected by young men while they 
were still undergraduates; and Mills, and 
Judson, and Newell passed immediately 
from the schools into the distant lands where 
they laid the foundations of Christian em- 
pires.' 

"As I read these words a very remarkable 
impression was made upon my mind and 

41 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

heart. Up to that hour I had never felt any- 
special interest in foreign missions, but in 
a moment, almost like a gentle flash of light, 
an impression was made upon my mind that 
here was to be my lifework. At some time, 
in some way, I was to be sent out to some 
distant land where my life was to be 
devoted to missionary work. This conviction 
or manifestation, or perhaps vision would be 
a better word, was very clear, and in after 
years I recalled the fact that the word 'em- 
pires' had made a distinct impression on my 
mind. A great, a very great, work was to 
be done. Nations were to be evangelized, 
empires were to be founded. 

"The unexpected impression was not wel- 
comed by me, and I was more than willing to 
be persuaded that it had been a mere flight 
of fancy ; but the impression made had been 
too deep and too distinct to be easily effaced. 
I have noticed all through life that I am 
rarely moved to speak freely of my deepest 
convictions, and sometimes I have been re- 
minded of our Saviour's request to the three 
favored disciples to 'tell the vision to no 
man.' In later years I have felt no reticence 
in speaking on the subject, but at the time 

42 



FOREIGN MISSIONARY SERVICE 

I could not have explained the incident 
clearly, and might have been misled by- 
honest but mistaken friends. As far as any- 
religious expectance was concerned, I was at 
best walking in a very dim twilight, and was 
by no means qualified to form a correct 
opinion upon a manifestation of this kind. 
As a matter of fact, however, from this time 
forward I was never able to dismiss from my 
mind a misgiving that my ultimate destina- 
tion would be some field in the great heathen 
world." 

Five years later he began to be inwardly 
disturbed, and slowly but surely he was 
reaching the conclusion that he was to go to 
India. 

But God, who, in his grace, talks to the 
deeps in men through the Holy Spirit, will 
also through his providence confirm the in- 
ward impression by opening the door of op- 
portunity. Perhaps it may be said there are 
three voices in which God speaks to his obedi- 
ent and listening servants : in their own souls, 
through the voice of the church, and through 
the door of opportunity. Happy is he whom 
all three voices call unitedly, each confirming 
the others. 

43 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

But what if any of these three voices fail 
to call? He would better wait prayerfully, 
patiently. If it be God's plan for him, God 
will utter himself so that the depths within 
and the breadths without will answer to each 
other, and the way will be made plain. And, 
if there be times of uncertainty and waiting, 
may these not be for the testing of faith and 
added discipline of soul? In James Tho- 
burn's case the inward pressure presently 
found the outer response in opportunity and 
invitation. He writes : 

"There began to flit across my heart a mis- 
giving that my work in Ohio was nearly over, 
that my call to missionary work was soon to 
be brought to a definite issue, and that the 
field of my future labor would be India. 
How this definite and disquieting conviction 
began I cannot tell. I never could recall its 
origin, or tell how it had taken possession of 
my mind. I only know that the issue was 
at last being forced upon me, and must soon 
be decided definitely for all time to come. 
One day I came in from the post office and 
sat down to read The Christian Advocate 
and Journal, at that time edited by Dr. Abel 
Stevens. The leading editorial was an ap- 

44 



FOREIGN MISSIONARY SERVICE 

peal to the young men of the church, and it 
closed with a statement that six young men 
were urgently needed for India, and asked 
where they were to be found. I was power- 
fully moved by the appeal, not so much by 
anything it contained as by a strong impres- 
sion that I ought to be one of the six young 
men to go forth in response to the call. I 
dropped the paper and fell on my knees, and 
promised God that I would accept the call 
if only he would make it clear that he sent 
me. I asked for some token, for some 
definite indication that I was called from 
above, not only in the general way to be- 
come a missionary, but to that special field, 
and at that special time. I had not long to 
wait for an answer. 

"Strangely enough, I had not, up to this 
time, sought counsel from any Christian 
friend. I had barely mentioned the fact, on 
two or three occasions in the course of two 
or three years, that I had more or less of a 
conviction that I should become a mission- 
ary; but for reasons which I did not then 
understand, I felt averse to speaking to inti- 
mate friends on the subject. 

"I had thus far felt more and more like 

45 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

keeping silence about the matter, but now 
a point was reached where I felt that I must 
speak; I might be mistaking my convictions. 
I had promised to obey the voice of the 
church, and, if God spoke to me directly, 
he would also speak to me through the 
church. If he were to bid me go and at the 
same time bid the church to send me, the 
latter call would be a strong confirmation of 
the former. My presiding elder was the im- 
mediate channel of authority through which 
I received the commands of the church, and 
hence I resolved to seek his advice. If he 
thought favorably of the matter, I would 
take further steps ; but, if he disapproved of 
it, I would pause and wait for more light; 
or, possibly, dismiss the subject from my 
mind altogether." 

Meanwhile, the God who was talking to 
the young preacher in the depths, was has- 
tening to him in the person of the presiding 
elder : 

"He came at an early hour, having ridden 
on horseback from the nearest railroad sta- 
tion, and met me at the house of Brother 
Peter Keener, a cabinet-maker, who was one 
of the few members we had in that French 

46 



FOREIGN MISSIONARY SERVICE 

settlement. Keener's house was one of 
my familiar stopping places, and at the 
head of the stairway there was a tiny little 
room, barely large enough to contain a bed, 
a chair, a table, and a candlestick, where I 
had often slept when on weekly rounds on 
the circuit. It was a snowy morning, and 
the presiding elder was sitting with his feet 
to the stove, which stood in the cozy little 
room below, when he remarked: 

" 'I met Bishop Janes on the train this 
morning.' 

6 'Bishop Janes V I replied. 'What can 
he be doing out here?' 

" 'He is on his way West, looking for mis- 
sionaries for India. He wants six immedi- 
ately.' 

"My heart leaped into my throat, but be- 
fore I could say anything the elder con- 
tinued: 

" 'James, how would you like to go?' 

" 'It is very singular/ I said, 'but I 
have come here with the special purpose 
of asking your advice about going to 
India.' 

" 'Well, I must tell you that you have been 
in my mind all morning. I incline to think 

47 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

you ought to go. I have felt so ever since 
the Bishop told me of his errand.' 

"I went upstairs to the little prophet 
chamber and knelt down to seek for guidance 
from above, but I could not pray. God 
poured his spirit upon me from on high, and 
my heart so overflowed with a hallowed feel- 
ing of love and joy that I could not utter a 
word. Before I could ask, God had an- 
swered. It was not so much a call to India 
that I received as an acceptance for India. 
I did not receive any message, or realize any 
new conviction, or come down from my 
sacred audience with God feeling the matter 
was forever settled, and yet that hour stands 
out in my life as the burning bush must have 
stood in the memory of Moses. 

"It was my burning bush. It has followed 
me through all the years which have passed 
like a Divine Presence ; and a hundred times 
when wearied and oppressed with doubts and 
discouragements have I fallen on my knees 
and pleaded with God, by the hallowed 
memories of that hour of blessing, to prove 
faithful to the promise of his love and care 
which was then burned into my very soul. It 
has been one long inspiration, an unfailing 

48 



FOREIGN MISSIONARY SERVICE 

source of strength and courage, when these 
virtues seemed about to fail. 

"Practically, the question of my going to 
India was settled when I came down from 
that little room, but I knew it not." 

Long years afterward, when the reality 
and efficiency of the call had been tested 
through over fifty years of phenomenal serv- 
ice, he says concerning it: 

"My call was clear and distinct, aside al- 
together from the incidents connected with 
it, and has stood out in my past life like a 
mountain peak in a level plain. The thought 
of doubting it has never for a single moment 
occurred to me. It was specific. I was to 
go to India. I was to spend my life there. 
I was to go for my Master, the same Saviour 
as the one calling me. I was to go in his 
name — to represent him there. No hiding 
place for doubt was left for me. The sun 
of righteousness illuminated my whole 
horizon." 

There is both pathos and humor in the 
Bishop's account of the sailing of that early 
group of missionaries to India to join the 
lion-hearted Butlers, who were out there 
alone through all the stormy days of the In- 

49 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

dian Mutiny, and were now looking eagerly 
for promised reenf orcements : 

"As we were to sail from Boston, it was 
arranged that were to go to Lynn, the 
seat of the New England Conference, where 
we were to be ordained a few days before 
the date of our sailing. We arrived at Lynn 
on the 7th of April, and found the Confer- 
ence in session. Bishop Ames presided, and 
some of the notable men of the church were 
present. Dr. W. F. Warren was one of the 
young men ordained on Sunday, and Gilbert 
Haven, then a prominent but not yet a lead- 
ing member of the Conference, spoke at one 
of the anniversaries. An incident which oc- 
curred at the Sunday school anniversary has 
lingered in my memory. The church was 
crowded, and I could only get room to stand 
in the vestibule, near the door. I was stand- 
ing leaning against the stairway listening to 
a thousand children singing, 

" ' In heaven above, where all is love, 
There'll be no more sorrow there/ 

In those days when my heart was burdened 
with a certain kind of quiet sadness, these 
words came to me with a sweet, soothing in- 

50 



FOREIGN MISSIONARY SERVICE 

fluence which I shall never forget. A 
stranger stood by me, and noticing that he 
seemed to recognize me, I said : 'What sweet 
singing!' 

" 'You'd better enjoy it all you can,' he 
replied, 'for you will never hear such singing 
again.' 

"The words dropped upon my heart like 
lead. I was reminded that I was leaving 
privileges which had become interwoven with 
my daily happiness; but my unbelieving 
heart did not then dare to hope that in other 
tongues I should hear the songs of Zion 
warbled by the glad young voices of thou- 
sands rescued from the worship of idols. 
Often since that day, when listening to glad 
songs of praise in India, have I thought of 
the singers at Lynn, and my strange slow- 
ness to believe that their song was to be taken 
up by all the little ones of earth. 

"At eight o'clock on Tuesday morning, 
April the 12th, we went on board the little 
vessel which was to carry us to Calcutta. It 
was a snug little ship of only six hundred and 
fifty tons, carried a cargo of Wenham ice. 
A dozen friends accompanied us, and a brief 
service was held in the little cabin of the ship. 

51 



THOBUKN— CALLED OF GOD 

Instead of selecting a farewell hymn, we 
joined in singing, 

" * O for a thousand tongues to sing 
My great Redeemer's praise, 
The glories of my God and King, 
The triumphs of his grace! * 

after which Dr. Durbin commended us in 
prayer to God, asking for protection at sea 
and victory on our distant battlefield. A tug 
took us in tow, but strong easterly winds 
kept us from getting out to sea till the morn- 
ing of the 16th, when our vessel crept out 
of the harbor and began her long journey 
across the trackless sea. Late in the after- 
noon I went up on deck, and looking through 
the mist and rain took what I supposed was 
my last view of the shores of my native land. 
The distant hills were fast hiding themselves 
in mist and cloud, and the view was utterly 
cheerless and desolate. I ran my eye along 
the coast line, looked at the hills, thought 
of greener hills and brighter skies farther 
west, and then turned away to look beyond 
the everlasting hills for the golden gates of 
the city of light." 

Happy the young missionary who goes 

52 



FOREIGN MISSIONARY SERVICE 

forth with such consecration to his task and 
with such assurance of the divine call and 
leadership. Happy the church that has such 
sons to send. Above all, happy the land and 
the people toward whom such Knights of the 
Cross set their faces to find high and holy 
adventure. 



63 



CHAPTER VI 
CALLED TO FACE A LIFE TASK 

While these notable reenforcements are 
on their way it would be well to review briefly 
the situation in India. 

The Rev. Dr. and Mrs. William Butler 
were there. They had selected a central 
territory between the Ganges and the 
Jumna, in the two populous and important 
provinces of Oudh and Rohilkund. And 
while the Methodist missions have far tran- 
scended these early bounds, the fact that they 
are still the main center of the Methodist 
strength and influence, and that Luck- 
now, the capital of Oudh, is still the great- 
est Methodist center of the Indian empire, 
bears witness to the wisdom and sagacity of 
the Butler selection of field. 

Soon after the starting of the mission, the 
Indian Mutiny broke out and threatened to 
destroy the very foundations of all Chris- 
tian work throughout India. But what 
really happened was that the very horrors 

54 



CALLED TO FACE A LIFE TASK 

of the Mutiny quickened Christian solicitude 
and interest in India. The devoted loyalty 
of the handful of Indian Christians to their 
Lord added confidence and admiration to 
solicitude. The Mutiny, so far from uproot- 
ing Christianity from India, only stimulated 
deeper interest and larger effort. As more 
recently in the Boxer Rebellion in China, 
"the ashes of the martyrs are the seed of the 
church. " Among the other results was the 
sailing of the party of whom James M. Tho- 
burn was one. 

India has ever since been deep in the heart 
of American Methodism. It has proved to 
be at once our most picturesque, romantic, 
and fruitful mission field, and never more so 
than to-day, when tidal waves of salvation 
are carrying tens of thousands of converts 
into the Christian Church. 

The India to which Thoburn went greeted 
him with an impressive presentation of the 
idolatry in which it was steeped. After four 
months of monotonous sailing they "sighted 
the hills of Orissa." "Going up on deck I 
saw a large, black object on the shore and 
was told that it was the world-renowned 
temple of Juggernaut. It seemed as if 

65 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

heathenism had risen up to meet us at our 
coming and bid us defiance. My earliest 
missionary recollections had been associated 
with that temple and its hideous idol, and my 
mind and heart were strangely moved as I 
gazed upon the gloomy-looking black object 
before me. I was at the doorway of India, 
and began to feel eager for the strife which 
I knew was near at hand." 

How prolonged that strife and how en- 
trenched the people in their devotion to their 
idol gods, he was to learn through the long 
toilsome years. He was also to learn that 
deepest joy of delivering men by the thou- 
sands from the thraldom of fear that just 
such debasing conceptions of Deity as the 
Juggernauts of man's perverted imagination 
build. 

The first years of the young missionary's 
life, though filled with labor and days of 
earnest devotion, do not call for special 
notice. Stationed at Naini Tal, on the slopes 
of the Himalayas, he preached in English 
to the soldiers of the British garrison, 
eagerly devoting himself, meanwhile, to the 
acquisition of the Hindustani, in which he 
early acquired much facility for ordinary 

56 



CALLED TO FACE A LIFE TASK 

colloquial speech with the less educated. His 
English preaching was markedly effective; 
and the more so because he was forced to 
conclude his services in an hour and his ser- 
mons in thirty minutes. He says: 

"The sermon was reduced to thirty min- 
utes. I had been accustomed to make a 
formal introduction and to attempt a formal 
peroration. I cut off both of these at a 
stroke, and found that in doing so I had 
simply thrown away much useless wadding. 
Then I eliminated everything which I did 
not really wish to say, and which did not 
seem really important to be said, and found 
that I could give the people God's message 
a great deal more effectively in thirty min- 
utes than in sixty. To my surprise, I found 
that the whole service was made more effec- 
tive by the rigid limitations of time, and I 
have ever since maintained the rule which 
was enforced upon me by the Scotch major. 
If I wished to deliver an oration or a lec- 
ture, or to argue a question like a lawyer, 
I should ask for an hour's time at least; but 
when I come before people with a message 
from God, I prefer to be more like a man 
in haste. A messenger of the Almighty has 

57 



THOBUKN— CALLED OF GOD 

no business to saunter into a pulpit and waste 
five minutes in the lolling in an easy chair 
or sofa, no business to talk with the minister 
who sits beside him while the choir wastes 
precious time with operatic preludes and in- 
terludes, no business to perform the ritual- 
istic duty of reading tedious and irrelevant 
lessons, to make long and tedious prayers, 
to waste five minutes in reading notices and 
then to spend one half the time devoted to 
the sermon in talk which might be omitted 
without the slightest loss to any human 
being. God's messenger should be a man 
in haste, and when standing before those to 
whom God has sent him, he should be very 
careful not to waste a single half -minute." 

In the service of the English he was learn- 
ing what afterward stood by him and the 
cause of Christianity in India in good stead. 

The direct returns of his labor among the 
Indians were slight. It was two years before 
a single convert was baptized; and at the 
end of his first term of service the band of 
Christians was but small and feeble. 

The missionary had married; a little son 
had been born, but the dear young wife sick- 
ened and died. The little nest was broken 

58 



CALLED TO FACE A LIFE TASK 

up. The missionary began to have premoni- 
tions of coming changes in his work. 

"What was in the future I did not know; 
but unconsciously the feeling was slowly 
creeping into my heart that my connection 
with Naini Tal was not to be permanent. 
He who mars our chosen plans can make 
our plans for us, and I began to feel that 
God's thoughts were above my fancies, 
God's promises above and beyond my hopes, 
and God's vineyard a wider sphere of labor 
than the choice little corner which I had 
thought to call my own." 

Soon after the wife's death the mission- 
ary, accompanied by a faithful Indian serv- 
ant, took his infant boy home, to spend less 
than eighteen months with him during the 
next twenty years. What self -crucifixion 
there is in such experiences many a sad- 
hearted but uncomplaining missionary 
parent knows! 

During his home stay he was subtly 
tempted to remain and organize a "school 
for preparing missionaries." From this he 
was saved by the quiet but penetrating in- 
sight of his sister Isabella. He sought an 
interview with her on the subject. He says: 

59 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

"I unfolded the plan without a shadow of 
misgiving, I was allowed to finish my story 
without interruption, and when I had told 
all we walked a few paces in silence. At last 
I asked, 'What do you think of it all? Why 
don't you tell me?' 

" 'If I remember correctly, 5 she replied, 
'you said, when you went to India, you were 
sure God called you?' 

" 'Yes; and so I was.' 

" 'Did he call you?' 

" 'Yes ; I have never doubted it for a 
moment; it was the clearest religious impres- 
sion of any kind that I have ever received.' 

" 'Then my advice is this: whenever God 
gives you an equally clear call to leave India 
you may safely give it up. Have you any 
such call now?' The effect of this question 
was astonishing. In a moment the false 
lights had vanished, and God's star was 
again shining. I belonged to India again, 
and saw only one path of duty before me. 
The next morning it seemed as if the pro- 
ject of abandoning India was a thing of the 
distant past, and I could scarcely realize that 
I had only the day before been contemplating 
such a thing as retirement from the field." 

60 



CHAPTER VII 

CALLED TO MOMENTOUS EX- 
PERIENCES: EARLY BAPTISM 
OF LOW-CASTE PEOPLE 

On his return to India he was at first ap- 
pointed to a remote hill station where it 
seemed his range was sadly constricted. He 
applied himself with his accustomed dili- 
gence. At the end of two years there was 
a Christian community of twenty-six. "Up 
there in the mountains, Thoburn was not 
finding big returns for his labors ; but he was 
brooding over big ideas and was to receive 
a very special fitting for the greatly enlarg- 
ing plans." 

It was high up in the mountains of Gurh- 
way, where the missionary's heart almost 
failed him in the presence of the blindest and 
most ardent bands of idolatrous pilgrims, 
that God's Spirit specially visited him and 
he was strengthened to "undertake great 
things for God and to expect great things 
from God." 

61 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

"At eleven o'clock I took my pocket Bible 
and retired to a little thicket near by for my 
Sabbath worship. I was the only worshiper. 
No other person within fifty miles adored the 
God to whom I that day bowed down. I sat 
on the soft grassy carpet, in the thick shade 
of an evergreen oak, and opening my Bible 
at random began to read the thirty-second 
chapter of Isaiah: 

" 'Behold a King shall reign in righteous- 
ness, and princes shall rule in judgment, 
And a man shall be as a hiding place from 
the wind, and a covert from the tempest; 
as rivers of waters in a dry place, as the 
shadow of a great rock in a weary land. 
And the eyes of them that see shall not be 
dim, and the ears of them that hear shall 
hearken. ... Until the Spirit be poured 
upon us from on high, and the wilderness 
be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be 
counted for a forest. . . . Blessed are ye 
that sow beside all waters. 5 

"I had no definite expectation in my mind 
as I began to read this chapter. I was strug- 
gling against a feeling of extreme depres- 
sion, and clinging to God's sure word of 
promise, but beyond this I was asking for 

62 



MOMENTOUS EXPERIENCES 

nothing and expecting nothing. I read on 
until I came to the words, 'Until the Spirit 
be poured upon us from on high/ when it 
seemed as if a window of heaven had been 
opened above me. The Holy Spirit was 
poured upon me, and in a moment my sink- 
ing heart was filled with exultant hope and 
confidence. I read on until I came to the 
last verse, 'Blessed are ye that sow beside all 
waters/ when I saw, and I felt in my inmost 
soul, that in going forth to earth's waste 
places to sow I was the heir of a special 
promise and had the assurance of a special 
blessing. 

"The experience of that memorable hour 
upon the lonely mountainside had to me all 
the force of a renewal of my commission 
from above. I little understood at the time 
what a permanent influence it was to have 
upon my subsequent life. It has not lingered 
like a bright spot in a receding past, but it 
has followed me wherever I have gone. 
Nearly eighteen years have passed since that 
day, but the influence of that manifestation 
of the Spirit to me is clearer and more 
powerful now than it was the day after the 
event. It lives in my heart like a vision of 

63 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

God. It has all the power of a special reve- 
lation, and it seems as natural for me to 
plead its memory in prayer as to make men- 
tion of any of the written promises of the 
Word. God took me apart from the world, 
withdrew me into solitude with himself, that 
he might gird me anew with strength, and 
teach me in my chosen school a lesson of 
service never to be forgotten. 

"On Friday evening we visited a village 
near by and talked to the inquirers living in 
it for some time. They had many excuses 
and many promises to make, but declined to 
take any decisive steps toward becoming 
Christians. After a long talk I told them 
I must leave, but before doing so asked them 
to kneel down and join with us in prayer. 
They all bowed down to the ground, while 
I prayed earnestly but with a heavy heart, 
for I fully expected them to leave and pass 
on to another place. When we arose I be- 
gan to bid them farewell, but was suddenly 
interrupted by the head man of the company, 
who held out his hand and gave me his prom- 
ise to accept baptism at once. Others fol- 
lowed, and the result was that we returned to 
the village the next evening, held a delight- 

64 



MOMENTOUS EXPERIENCES 

ful meeting, and at its close baptized eight 
men and three women. We were all happy, 
and yet I had serious misgivings about what 
we had done. These three women knew 
very little about Christ or Christianity. 
They differed from the other women around 
them chiefly in the fact that they were 
friendly to Christianity, while the others 
hated it, but very few missionaries would 
have pronounced them 'prepared for bap- 
tism.' The men were better informed, and 
some of them more in earnest, but I had 
grave misgivings even in the case of the best 
of them. I feared very much that I had 
acted too precipitately, but there had seemed 
no other way open to me. To have left the 
people till they were better prepared would 
have been to abandon them to the wiles of 
intriguing neighbors, who would almost cer- 
tainly have entangled them in various snares, 
and thus made it nearly impossible to get 
them safely within the Christian fold. I 
hoped that it would turn out right, but 
feared it might be otherwise. Little did I 
dream, however, as I lay down to sleep that 
night of the lessons which were in store for 
me the next day. 

65 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

"Notice had been circulated through all 
the villages around that the grand meeting 
on Sunday would be held at eleven o'clock, 
and I had looked forward to this hour with 
eager expectation. The day was bright and 
clear, and a sweet Sabbath calm rested upon 
the quiet grove where our little camp was 
pitched. Eleven o'clock came, but no audi- 
ence appeared. This, however, did not much 
surprise us, as the simple villagers in India 
had no idea of time, and on such occasions 
may come an hour earlier or two hours later 
than the time appointed. We waited till the 
afternoon, and then gathered together a lit- 
tle company under a tree, where I preached, 
and afterward baptized two men, a woman, 
and a child. A few more stragglers dropped 
in, and at five o'clock I preached again and 
baptized two women and two children. 
Shortly after I had commenced preaching 
a large company arrived and took their 
places under the tree, where they listened 
very attentively. While I was baptizing the 
candidates all had risen to their feet and were 
watching the ceremony with the greatest in- 
terest, but I had not given them any special 
thought. At the close, to my utter astonish- 

66 



MOMENTOUS EXPERIENCES 

merit, eleven men stepped forward, and 
asked me to baptize them. They seemed 
serious and resolute, but I shrank from the 
idea of admitting so many uninstructed men 
to the holy rite of baptism. I accordingly 
told them that I was very glad to see them 
take this step, but that it would be necessary 
to give them preparatory instruction, and 
that in due time I would come again and 
baptize them. I saw their countenances fall 
in a moment, but did not divine the cause. 
Zahur-ul-Haqq, however, was master of the 
situation. To make the time, he started a 
hymn and then coming up to me, quietly 
said: 'If you put these men off in this way, 
they will not believe you. They will merely 
think that you have some secret reason for 
doubting them, and we shall see them no 
more. We must take them just as they 
come. Let them see that we trust them, and 
they will then trust us. If we do not accept 
them and baptize them, we cast them off 
altogether. 5 

"I was in a great strait, and for a minute 
or two I did not know what to do. But it 
would have been fatal for me to vacillate, 
and whatever was to be done must be done 

67 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

at once, and done firmly and confidently. I 
lifted my heart to God in prayer, and my 
decision was made. The men were called 
forward, and I told them that by the advice 
of Zahur-ul-Haqq I had determined to bap- 
tize them first and instruct them afterward. 
They brightened up at once, and were bap- 
tized in the midst of a rejoicing little com- 
pany of Christians. 

"I left Bashta with no little misgiving. I 
had baptized twenty-seven adults and organ- 
ized them into a church, appointed a pastor 
over them, and arranged for a careful super- 
vision of the work; but when I thought of 
those raw converts my heart almost sank 
within me. How could they be expected to 
hold together, adopt Christian habits, and 
develop the life of a genuine Christian 
church? What would other missionaries, 
think of this wholesale baptizing of ignorant 
men whom I had never seen before, and 
whose antecedents and even names I knew 
little or nothing of whatever? I was troubled 
not a little with questionings of this kind as 
I went on my way, but it was all for nothing. 
God was in the work. The little church 
founded in the wilderness and built out of 

68 



MOMENTOUS EXPERIENCES 

such rough material was not to fall into 
speedy decay. A year later I visited the 
place and held a meeting which was greatly 
blessed. Mr. Wheeler and Zahur-ul-Haqq 
were with me, and the latter received a rich 
anointing of the Spirit which added greatly 
to his efficiency in the work. On Sunday I 
baptized fifteen adults, and after receiving 
the communion, one hundred and two Chris- 
tians sat down under the mango trees to a 
common meal. The church at Bashta now 
holds a notable place among the Christians 
of that region, and the survivors of that 
group who were first baptized consider it 
the chief honor of their lives that they be- 
longed to the early pioneers of that day of 
small things." 

A full transcription is made of this event, 
for it was one of those seemingly inconspicu- 
ous matters out of which a great movement 
was to grow, namely, the turning of masses 
of the low-caste people of India to Chris- 
tianity. 

This matter of mass baptisms is not here 
argued. In fact, the days of contention re- 
garding it are practically past. All the mis- 
sions are more or less engaged in the win- 

69 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

ning of these masses. And, with adequate 
effort, there seems to be a general expecta- 
tion that the entire out-caste and the lowest 
caste population of India may speedily be 
won to Christ in tens of millions. 

This movement should, however, be ac- 
companied with very strenuous effort for 
primary education among the children, the 
preparation of an indigenous ministry, and 
a wisely directed and persistently maintained 
movement toward self-support. 

No church can be truly rooted in its native 
soil that is not able to read God's Word for 
itself, that is not increasingly led by its own 
sons and daughters, and that is not progres- 
sively freeing itself from financial depend- 
ence upon kindly people of alien lands. Self- 
instruction, self-support, self -propagation, 
all leading to self-government, must be got- 
ten before the fast-growing Indian churches 
as its great "Quadri-Lateral." 

Perhaps the earliest definite movement 
among these "untouchables" in the mass was 
that to which Missionary Thoburn was so 
strangely and divinely led. What was a 
notable and much-disputed experiment then 
is happily a commonplace experience now. 

70 



CHAPTER VIII 

CALLED TO HELP CREATE A 
WOMAN'S MISSIONARY MOVE- 
MENT 

With the early beginnings of an infant 
Indian church all manner of difficulties mul- 
tiplied. Particularly was the young mission- 
ary perplexed to know what to do with the 
women. These were even more ignorant 
than the men, more wedded to customs, and 
wholly unused to the presence of any men 
except those of their own immediate family. 
How was he to nurture and train the wives 
and mothers of the young and growing 
church? 

Our missionary was very much in earnest 
and there was in him both a quick compre- 
hension, a ready sympathy and yet a holy 
boldness that broke through unprofitable 
conventions. He found, even among the 
low-caste converts, that the women, if any 
of the elder males of the family were pres- 

71 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

ent, would hide their faces and sit on the 
floor of the church in a huddling heap. 

He appealed, he expostulated in vain. 
One day he felt that he could stand it no 
more: 

"One day I was to preach in the village 
chapel, and before the service I exhorted the 
women to come in and sit down unveiled, 
and thus show, once for all, that they had 
thrown their foolish customs to the wind. 
The husbands had given their consent, but 
I was by no means assured that my exhorta- 
tions would be heeded. The hour of service 
arrived, and the men filed into the little mud- 
walled chapel, and according to custom, took 
their seats on the floor on one side of the 
room. The women's side of the chapel was 
ominously vacant, and for a time I thought 
they must have conspired to stay away. But 
soon after the service had commenced a file 
of good sisters entered the chapel. The class 
leader's wife was at the head of the party, 
and she led the way to a corner on my left, 
where she busied herself for a minute or two 
in shuffling from side to side, but finally sat 
down with her face toward the corner, and 
with both her head and face carefully cov- 

72 



A WOMAN'S MOVEMENT 

ered. I left the little stand, which served 
as a pulpit, went to the poor creature, laid 
a hand on each shoulder, and requested her 
to turn round. She was startled half out of 
her wits, but turned at once. The woman 
next in rank to her had elder-brothers-in- 
law present, but she bravely took her seat 
and uncovered her face, and then all the rest 
followed her example; and from that time 
the spell of this stupid custom was broken 
in that village and neighborhood. But 
there were other customs and superstitions 
which constantly hedged up our way in try- 
ing to introduce a better life among the 
women, and in our frequent efforts to effect 
reforms by our summary and sometimes un- 
wise methods we were often baffled and de- 
feated. At times I was at my wits' end, and 
felt almost ready to give up the struggle, 
but I did not know that God was even then 
beginning to show us a more excellent way." 
The "more excellent way" was the thought 
that came to him, that woman's work can 
best be done by women. If he could get a 
woman free to devote her whole time to these 
raw, untaught women Christians and their 
heathen neighbors, it would greatly help. 

73 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

He saw this and invited the best woman he 
knew in America to join him. She was his 
sister Isabella. 

Years before this the conviction was set- 
tling upon the mind of Miss Thoburn that 
she was to "go far hence unto the Gentiles." 
But family matters had prevented. Besides, 
there was no church organization under 
which Miss Thoburn could go. Neither she 
nor her brother, however, was a person to 
be halted by difficulties. The brother's solu- 
tion was that his sister should join "The 
Woman's Missionary Society of New 
York," a nondenominational Society. But 
the sister more penetratingly saw that the 
best work would be done in these early days 
by remaining under the direction of her own 
church. Nor was she kept waiting long, for 
others besides James Thoburn had seen the 
imperative necessity for a woman agency in 
the Indian field. The Butlers and the 
Parkers were home in 1869, and the elect 
ladies who bore these names, joined by five 
others, on a stormy day in May organized 
"The Woman's Foreign Missionary So- 
ciety" in Trempnt Street Church, Boston, 
Massachusetts. 

74 



A WOMAN'S MOVEMENT 

Boston has witnessed the birth of many 
great movements ; but it is doubtful whether 
any farther reaching activity, fraught with 
inexpressible blessing to large bodies of 
needy people, was ever launched in the great 
capital of New England than this one. 

The first missionaries of this new Society 
were Isabella Thoburn and Clara Swain, 
M.D., the latter the first woman missionary 
doctor ever sent out by any board, and the 
forerunner of a small army of workers, as 
helpful and blessed as ever have taken the 
messages of their Master to the suffering 
bodies and souls of the women of distant 
lands. 

The missionary, with his readiness to learn 
new lessons, soon discovered that his sister 
was as real a missionary as he. With charac- 
teristic frankness he says: 

"I was not quick, however, to learn that 
the ladies sent out to the work were mission- 
aries, and that their work was quite as im- 
portant as my own. A few days after my 
sister had commenced her work I found my- 
self pressed for time, and asked her to copy 
a few letters for me. She did so cheerfully, 
and very soon I had occasion to repeat the 

75 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

request. The copying was again done for 
me, but this time I was quietly reminded that 
a copyist would be a great assistance to her 
as to myself. The remark made me think, 
and I discovered that I had been putting a 
comparatively low estimate on all the work 
which 'the missionaries' were not doing. 
Woman's work was at a discount, and I had, 
to reconsider the situation, and once for all 
accept the fact that a Christian woman sent 
into the field was a Christian missionary, and 
that her time was as precious, her work as 
important, and her rights as sacred as those 
of the more conventional missionaries of the 
other sex. The old-time notion that a woman 
in her best estate is only a helper, and should 
only be recognized as an assistant, is based 
on a very shallow fallacy. She is a helper 
in the married relation, but in God's wide 
vineyard there are many departments of 
labor in which she can successfully maintain 
the position of an independent worker. 

"It has been said that a separate Mission- 
ary Society need not have been organized, 
but that its work could even now be as well 
done by the parent society. It is easy after 
an event to say that things might have been 

76 



A WOMAN'S MOVEMENT 

done differently, but there is not the slight- 
est reason to believe that any six leading men 
in the church would have been able to in- 
terpret the rising conviction of their Chris- 
tian sisters, if the matter had been left to the 
men alone. As a matter of fact, bishops, 
secretaries, managers, editors, and leading 
men generally, had not only failed to com- 
prehend the first indications of this convic- 
tion, but were perplexed, and, in many in- 
stances at least, confounded by the sudden 
uprising of the daughters of the church. It 
might do to say that these men should have 
had clearer vision, or that they should have 
been more quick to recognize the presence 
of a great moral movement around them; 
but to say that the direction of the movement 
itself should have been intrusted to men who 
did not appreciate its superlative worth, and 
some of whom did not hesitate to disparage 
it, is simply to say that the good work should 
have been suppressed at the outset. 

"It was a mistake on the part of the 
Woman's Society to lay too much stress on 
the necessity of employing unmarried women 
in the mission field. The effect was to create 
the impression that married women could do 

77 



THOBUKN— CALLED OF GOD 

very little work as missionaries, and this very 
naturally had the effect of causing some 
women in the field to look askance at a so- 
ciety which seemed to depreciate the good 
work which many had been doing." 

This sentiment finds wide confirmation 
among experienced missionaries. Thoburn 
found this new agency of the highest value 
and ventures this remark: "If the Woman's 
Missionary Society had done nothing else, 
or if its work in other lands were to perish 
from the earth, it would still be able to 
justify its existence by pointing to the strik- 
ing advance which has been made in all that 
concerns woman's work in the North India 
Mission since the first agents of the society 
arrived in the field at the beginning of 1870. 
It is not so much that these ladies have done 
a good and great work, as that scores of 
Christian women have been enlisted in the 
Master's service, and the working capacity 
of the mission, as a whole, very nearly, if not 
altogether, doubled." 

"In recent years I have noticed that there 
is not only a steady breaking down of the 
old prejudice of making women too promi- 
nent in the churches, but an increased will- 

78 



A WOMAN'S MOVEMENT 

ingness to intrust them more and more with 
responsibilities which, a very few years ago, 
were given to men alone. Two young ladies 
have been sent by the Baptists of Australia 
to open a mission in a remote town in Bengal 
where no gentlemen are at hand to direct 
them, and in our own mission women have 
repeatedly been put in charge of stations 
where the entire responsibility devolved upon 
them, and they have acquitted themselves 
well. It is more than probable that this 
tendency to give the women more and more 
of the ordinary work found in a mission field 
will increase rather than diminish, and I can 
even go the length of adding that it is by no 
means improbable that Indian Phoebes will 
yet administer the ordinances of the church 
to the secluded women of the zenanas. I 
have baptized frightened village women 
under circumstances that made me wish that 
some Phoebe might be employed to take my 
place ; and as for the inmates of the zenanas 
it is simply impossible for a man to gain 
access to them, and, even if he could be ad- 
mitted to them, his services would be very 
unsastisfactory. A woman who has been 
carefully secluded all her days, and who has 

79 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

never seen the faces of men who were not 
members of her family, is not merely em- 
barrassed in the presence of a foreign mis- 
sionary; she is absolutely frightened. There 
are those who believe that these timid, un- 
taught creatures will be induced to come to 
the big church built for them, and stand up 
in the presence of a congregation, face to 
face with a missionary, and give intelligible 
answers to his questions, and then receive the 
baptism at his hands. All this may happen, 
but I do not expect to see it. I cannot be- 
lieve that God will exact such an ordeal from 
such women; but rather, that, as in ancient 
times, we shall see the church in the house 
revived, and Christian women sent to minis- 
ter to those who are inaccessible to the ordi- 
nary minister of the congregation. God 
would have mercy, and not sacrifice, and he 
will not compel these children of misfortune 
to suffer the torture of publicity for the mere 
sake of conforming to a custom which is more 
conventional than apostolic." 

This may possibly shock the ecclesiastical 
beliefs of some reader; but there is inherent 
good sense in the contention. 



80 



CHAPTER IX 
CALLED ACROSS THE GANGES 

James Thoburn, in 1870, was the presid- 
ing elder of the Oudh District, with his resi- 
dence in the capital, Lucknow, one of the 
greater cities of India. 

Across the river Ganges, outside of Oudh, 
was the growing city of Cawnpore. An in- 
vitation to preach in Cawnpore brings us to 
the next marked forward movement to be led 
by Thoburn. Writing of it, he says : 

"It so chanced one week that I had no ap- 
pointment of any kind for the Sabbath, and 
the novel situation led me to consider care- 
fully whether I was doing my whole duty. 
On Friday I had an errand at the railway 
station, and, while walking across the plat- 
form, a gentleman with a telegram in his 
hand stopped me and asked me if I would 
go to Cawnpore on Sunday, and preach to a 
small congregation. A preacher had disap- 
pointed him, and he had just been notified 
that he must look up some one else. I told 

81 



THOBUKN — CALLED OF GOD 

him that for once in my life I had an idle day- 
ahead, and so agreed to go to Cawnpore, 
'assuredly gathering' that God was calling 
me thither. Cawnpore was at that time an 
important city, and I had been regretting 
that it had not been included in our field and 
wondering if our way would open for us to 
gain an entrance into it. It is much larger 
now, and is not only the chief commercial 
city of North India, but destined to maintain 
its leading position in the future. 

"I found a congregation of about fifty 
people worshiping in a hired storeroom and 
served two Sundays in the month by Presby- 
terian and Baptist missionaries from Alla- 
habad. I was received most cordially, and 
was not only invited to return, but urged to 
plant a mission in the place ; or, if not able to 
do this, at least to arrange for preachers to 
go over from Lucknow on the vacant Sun- 
days. I was anxious to drive in our stakes 
at once, but several obstacles intervened. In 
the first place, the Board in New York had 
accepted at the outset a certain carefully de- 
fined field for our mission, the western 
boundary of which was the river Ganges, 
and had never formally relinquished the 

82 



CALLED ACROSS THE GANGES 

right of fixing our boundaries. Then the 
General Conference had fixed the boun- 
daries of our Annual Conference, and it was 
a question with some whether this did not 
confirm the original action of the Board. 
Still, further, there was an unwritten law of 
comity among the various missionary bodies 
in India, which made it improper to intrude 
into the field of a neighbor without his per- 
mission, and, as matters then stood, it was 
proper and fitting that we should seek coun- 
sel of some of our neighbors, especially of our 
American Presbyterian brethren, who occu- 
pied the region west of the Ganges, while we 
occupied the country eastward. Lastly, we 
had a well-understood agreement among our- 
selves that no new mission station should be 
added to our list, except by the consent of the 
Annual Conference, and this consent I could 
not obtain till the close of the year. While 
thus hedged about in so many directions I 
could not take any decisive action, and yet it 
seemed very clear to me that an open door 
like this ought not to be neglected. I, ac- 
cordingly, ventured to become responsible 
for supplying the little congregations with 
preachers, who would be sent over from 

83 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

Lucknow every alternate Sunday, and left 
the question of a permanent mission in the 
city to be settled in the future. On my re- 
turn to Lucknow I invited our Wesleyan 
missionary brother to take a part in these 
services, which he did for a time, but subse- 
quently both he and the Baptist brethren 
withdrew in our favor. In this way we were 
led to begin work on the western bank of 
the Ganges, and events soon proved that 
God's hand had guided us thither." 

This was the first step in a long journey, 
and it was taken in the way that was after- 
ward to plant the Methodist Mission all over 
India. The immediate object was to serve 
the needs of a handful of English people. 
From the first, Thoburn had seen the tre- 
mendous influence exercised by this small 
community, and had always eagerly sought 
to serve it. Less than a month ago he was 
asked: "What is the use of work among the 
English in India? Has it any real value?" 
His answer was: "The English work as I 
have known it in India I consider very valu- 
able, in fact, a necessity. The whole intel- 
lectual life of India is slowly drifting, like 
ice from the arctic circle, toward the modern 

84 



CALLED ACROSS THE GANGES 

English point of view. The very native pas- 
tors themselves show the influence of the 
English, of the English ideas, and in the 
schools the discussions among our young 
people, of which we have many instances, all 
show that the reading public of India is in 
touch with everything that bears the English 
brand. The English people in India are 
more directly connected with the phases of 
thought noticeable among all native people 
of the land. English Christians in India 
have a wider and better influence upon the 
public thought than is generally supposed, 
and therefore, the right religious shaping of 
their life is a great factor in influencing the 
surrounding Hindus." 



85 



CHAPTER X 

LED TO SUMMON WILLIAM 
TAYLOR 

In the further spread of Methodist Mis- 
sions in India, there now appears on the 
scene a remarkable figure. 

Romantic is the tale of how James Tho- 
burn, the pathfinder and builder, summoned 
to India's help William Taylor, the greatest 
evangelist of his day — indeed, take him all 
in all, perhaps the outstanding evangelist of 
modern times. 

Taylor was widely known under the name 
of "California Taylor," from his courageous 
and successful work among the saloons and 
gambling dens of San Francisco when the 
whole region was plunged into the wild life 
of an early gold-seekers' camp. 

This tall, commanding figure, with a long 
beard and an apostolic air, had burst upon 
the California crowds and, by his ready wit, 
his sweet songs, and powerful exhortations, 
had arrested their attention and brought 

86 



SUMMONS TO WILLIAM TAYLOR 

many to a godly life, for it was clear from 
the first, and grew clearer all the way, 
through this glorious man's ministry, that 
his word was "in demonstration of the Spirit 
and of power." 

Perhaps a larger proportion of those con- 
verted under Taylor's preaching became 
Christians of the kind that "endure hard- 
ness" than under any similar ministry. 
There was a commanding influence in the 
man's own simplicity of life, his democratic 
spirit, his unassuming ways, his rugged cour- 
age, his patient endurance of positive priva- 
tion. The contagion of this great, lofty soul 
brought scores of lesser souls to altitudes un- 
dreamed of. 

The writer would crave the reader's par- 
don if even in this brief sketch, he turns 
aside from Thoburn to offer a tribute of 
grateful praise to this holy and effective 
man. He brought salvation to us and our 
households, and the fragrance of his memory, 
after forty years, is as ointment poured 
forth. Wherever they may be scattered, in 
America or amid the seven seas (for his 
evangelism was widespread), there are still 
hundreds who arise to call him blessed. And 

87 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

thousands have gathered about him in that 
fair land and before that Radiant Presence, 
whose love he carried with him the round 
world over. This was the man whose pres- 
ence in India Thoburn coveted. Where the 
world-wanderer might be, he did not know. 
But he knew that probably in some remote 
section of the far-flung British empire he 
would likely be engaged spreading his Re- 
deemer's kingdom. 

Mr. Thoburn wrote Mr. Taylor an ear- 
nest invitation to come to north India and 
offered him every facility in conveying his 
messages to the thronging people of the land. 
The letter was addressed to the "Wesley an 
Headquarters in London." 

It was nearly a year before Taylor re- 
ceived it. To him it was of the Lord, for he, 
too, was a man who believed in the direct 
leading of the Holy Spirit. Is there ever a 
man really effective in the spiritual realm 
who does not thus believe? 

He came. Thoburn writes : 

"He came up from Australia, and stopped 
for a time in Ceylon, intending to go from 
thence to the Wesleyan missionaries in the 
Madras Presidency ; but, not finding an open 

88 



SUMMONS TO WILLIAM TAYLOR 

door there at that time, he concluded to come 
on to us at Lucknow. We waited his com- 
ing with eager expectation, and spread his 
fame among the people far and wide. He 
arrived on Friday, November 25, 1870, and 
began his work on the following Sunday. 
He had wonderfully changed since I had 
seen him, both in manner and appearance. 
He was now a veritable patriarch, with erect 
and imposing mien, long, white beard, a 
piercing but kindly eye, and a reserve which 
often impressed strangers more powerfully 
than any words could have done. His pul- 
pit style had completely changed — so much 
so, indeed, that there was absolutely nothing 
about him which reminded me of the William 
Taylor whom I had known a dozen years be- 
fore. He seemed indifferent to the sur- 
rounding circumstances, but from the mo- 
ment of his arrival began to give us lessons 
in his theory of 'soul-saving.' At family 
prayer he read a few verses and expounded 
them to us, and then, kneeling down, con- 
tinued the exposition in the form of prayer. 
He insisted much on our maintaining an at- 
titude of faith. Walking with him at a late 
hour one night through a palace garden, I 

89 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

chanced to say, 'If we should have a revival 
here' — in a moment my arm was in the grip 
of a giant.' 

" 'If ? My brother, there is no "if" about 
it. We are going to have a revival. That is 
settled. The agreement is with the Lord 
Almighty, and it cannot fail.' 

"As he thus talked to me he held me at 
arm's length, while my arm felt as if screwed 
up in an iron vise. 

"On Sunday evening the chapel was 
crowded to its utmost capacity, and the en- 
trance of the strange preacher was awaited 
with great curiosity. He went inside the 
communion railing, but paid no attention to 
the humble little pulpit. After singing and 
prayer he took the big Bible and stepping 
to one side to be near the lamp, proceeded 
to read and expound the second chapter of 
Acts. He did this in a manner of seeming 
indifference, and apparently took no note of 
time. After singing a second hymn he an- 
nounced his text, and began to preach to a 
congregation which was expecting the bene- 
diction. 

"I have heard him preach, perhaps fifty 
times since, but have seldom ever heard him 

90 



SUMMONS TO WILLIAM TAYLOR 

make an effort which seemed less suited to 
the occasion than his first sermon in India. 
Altogether, the service was a disappointment 
to us, and we were not surprised to see but 
a small congregation the next evening. This, 
however, seemed to arouse rather than de- 
press the preacher, and the sermon was 
searching and incisive. On Tuesday evening 
sinners were invited forward for prayers, 
and seven persons responded. They were 
not deeply convicted, and only one of the 
seven remained permanently with us; but 
this meeting was an era in the history of our 
work in India." 

And now began a ministry, often severely 
criticized, always startling, always overturn- 
ing traditions — sometimes perhaps need- 
lessly and not to profit, but take it all in all, 
a ministry of four years which has left in- 
delible impress and greatly quickened the 
Christian movement of the land. 

So just, so discriminating, so comprehen- 
sive is Bishop Thoburn's own writing on the 
subject, it is quoted in full: 

"Mr. Taylor had been preaching in Luck- 
now for a few days. On Wednesday morn- 
ing the first invitation was given to natives. 

91 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

The congregation was composed almost ex- 
clusively of native Christians, but very few 
of them were really converted. I acted as 
interpreter, and near the close of the sermon 
I had an opportunity of perceiving the ef- 
fects of that extraordinary power which at 
times attends Dr. Taylor's preaching. He 
was describing, in simple language, the 
works of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit, 
when suddenly a thrill seemed to go forth 
with his words. I felt it as I tried to inter- 
pret, and I saw the tears start into the eyes 
of the natives before us. Eleven men came 
forward for prayers, ten of whom almost 
immediately professed to find peace in be- 
lieving. Most of them were deeply moved, 
and there was every reason to believe that the 
work in their hearts was of the most genuine 
character. We were all surprised, however, 
at the simplicity and quietness of the meet- 
ings. We had fully expected that a long and 
vigorous prayer meeting would follow each 
call for seekers, but this seldom occurred. 
The inquirers were instructed, sometimes in 
a body, and sometimes one by one, and their 
attention kept closely to two points : submit- 
ting to God and receiving Jesus Christ. I 

92 



SUMMONS TO WILLIAM TAYLOR 

had seen Dr. Taylor in the midst of stormy 
prayer meetings in former years, and asked 
him why he had changed his methods. 'I 
never liked those meetings/ he said, 'but I 
found it best to endure them. When allowed 
my own way, I choose my own course.' " 

A deep and powerful work of revival set 
in at Lucknow, but it was confined to the 
Europeans and native Christians. Perhaps 
the work of preparation for the understand- 
ing of the gospel was not yet sufficiently ad- 
vanced among others. 

"We went through our mission field, 
preached everywhere to the native Chris- 
tians, stirred up a deep interest, and did 
much good, but at the end of his visit, we 
found ourselves just where we had been be- 
fore ; face to face with millions of people who 
seemed absolutely impervious to the truth, 
and who thus far had never been moved by 
the gospel, except in detached groups and 
in obscure places. 

"The work among the native Christians 
was not deep except at two or three 
points. . . . 

"Had Dr. Taylor's mission terminated 
here and he had left India to return no more, 

93 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

he would still have done a great and impor- 
tant work. He had taught valuable lessons, 
had elevated the spiritual tone of our little 
Conference, and had kindled a flame which 
has never since gone out. It is due to him 
to say that he gave an impetus to our work 
which it has never lost, and that he committed 
us to advanced movements which had he not 
led the way we might have shrunk from for 
years. If we were disappointed in not see- 
ing him hew a way for us through the dense 
masses of the natives, we were nevertheless 
permitted to see him beckon us forward into 
other fields, and point out to us other and 
greater responsibilities than we had dared to 
anticipate. 

"That he did a great and important serv- 
ice to the cause of Christianity in the empire 
I do not for one moment doubt. He is the 
'poor wise man' who by his wisdom did a 
great good for the 'little city' of Indian mis- 
sions, and now no man remembers him for 
it. He was the pioneer revivalist of the em- 
pire, and he gave an impetus to lay preach- 
ing which is felt in all its force to the pres- 
ent day. He brought the power of the gos- 
pel to bear upon low depths of vice, and he 

94 



SUMMONS TO WILLIAM TAYLOR 

inspired the most active Christians of the 
land with a loftier courage than they had 
known before. 

"The doctrines which he preached, and 
most of the peculiarities which he introduced, 
are now popularized all over India, and 
many of those who still condemn his pro- 
cedure are entering heartily into the work 
which he made possible for them. He did 
not sufficiently appreciate the enormous dif- 
ficulties which beset the work among the 
natives, he was too sanguine in reference to 
the success of his own men and his own 
methods, and too quick to assume that he 
had discovered the path which would quickly 
lead us all out of the dense jungle of diffi- 
culties in which we had so long been strug- 
gling, but after discounting his services with 
all just freedom, the fact remains that one 
of the greatest benefactors Indian Chris- 
tianity has ever had, and one of the truest 
men who ever tried to plan and labor for the 
Indian people, is William Taylor." 



95 



CHAPTER XI 

PREPARED AND CALLED TO 
CALCUTTA 

Mr. Taylor went from city to city in 
India, and how during these visitations small 
groups of believers were gathered into the 
"class meetings" and then into the churches; 
how from these churches have ultimately 
come whole Conferences of Methodism and 
the quickened life of the surrounding mis- 
sionaries, cannot be told. 

It was at Calcutta, the capital of the In- 
dian empire, Taylor met with the greatest 
opposition and indifference. Yet, in spite 
of all, he dug foundations deep and wide. 
And then, deeply moved from above, Taylor, 
the courageous innovator, boldly summoned 
Thoburn to leave his official position and his 
Conference to continue in the metropolitan 
city the work well begun, but much in need 
of furthering. 

But, as ever with those who seek the lead- 
ing of God's Spirit, Thoburn was to learn 
some valuable lessons the better to prepare 

96 



CALLED TO CALCUTTA 

him for larger spheres than he had yet found. 
He learned lessons of faith in the power of 
Christ's gospel to save his hearers, even while 
he was preaching ; and of faith in the people 
whom he served to minister to his temporal 
necessities and so release him and much of 
his work from necessary dependence upon 
a Mission Board; but, above all, he learned 
to organize bands of scattered believers into 
churches, self-supporting and largely self- 
directing, while yet in happy affiliation with 
the denomination to which he belonged. God 
was preparing his man for nation-wide work 
and even for the regions beyond. 

As in every other notable step taken by 
Dr. Thoburn, his entry upon the work in 
Calcutta was governed partly by his inward 
impressions and partly by his Conference 
and the trend of outer events. In the fall 
of 1873 an elect lady present at the yearly 
gathering in Lucknow, urged his coming to 
Calcutta. He was much impressed. These 
are his words : 

"Mrs. May, of Calcutta, almost immedi- 
ately began to urge me to go to Calcutta 
and make that great city my future home. 
She assured me that it had come upon her al- 

97 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

most as if by an inspiration that God had 
work for me there, but her repeated and 
earnest assurances that I would find an open 
door and an eager people awaiting me there 
seemed so improbable that I had often to 
laugh at what seemed her misplaced en- 
thusiasm. 'There will not be a place in the 
city that will hold the congregation,' she 
would say, 'and you will find more than you 
can possibly do.' It was easy enough to be- 
lieve that abundant work might be found in 
Calcutta, but eager hearers and crowded con- 
gregations seemed only to be possibilities of 
a very distant future. 

"Two months after the subject had been 
pressed upon my attention I received a tele- 
gram from Bishop W. L. Harris, then in 
Ceylon, asking me to meet him in Calcutta, 
where he was to arrive about the middle of 
December. Father Taylor had commenced 
his work in that city nearly a year previously, 
and had worked bravely in the face of con- 
stant discouragements. He called the city 
'the Paris of the East,' and was accustomed 
to say in those days that of all the places he 
had ever visited, Calcutta was the hardest 
and least inviting as a field of evangelistic 

98 



CALLED TO CALCUTTA 

labor. He had not, however, worked in vain. 
A church had been organized, a temporary 
place of worship erected on a rented site, and 
a deeper impression had been made upon the 
city than, perhaps, he himself suspected, or 
others were prepared to admit. He now 
wished to leave the work in other hands. He 
was an evangelist, and distinctly avowed his 
conviction that it was no part of his mission 
to do the work of a pastor, but, rather, to dig 
and plant, and leave others to prune and 
water. 

"Bishop Harris spent some days in the 
city and talked very freely to me about the 
work, but did not broach the subject of my 
transfer for some time. At last, however, 
he intimated to me that he should be glad to 
transfer me to Calcutta if the way would 
open, and meanwhile Father Taylor had 
intimated that he was impressed that I 
should take the work out of his hands; and 
he added that a singular dream had made it 
seem probable to him that all the difficulties 
which had baffled him so long would crumble 
to the earth as if in a moment when I came, 
and that I would have an easy and joyous 
victory. Our Conference met in January, 

99 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

in Lucknow, and on taking counsel of the 
brethren I found that, without a single ex- 
ception, they all approved of my going. It 
was, accordingly, arranged that I should 
spend three of the hot months at Naini Tal, 
but meantime go at once to Calcutta. I was, 
accordingly, transfered to the 'Bombay and 
Bengal Mission,' which was at that time 
formally organized by Bishop Harris, and 
my appointment read out for Calcutta." 

Summoned by Taylor, appointed by 
Bishop Harris, Thoburn went to India's 
capital city. 

The work in Calcutta reads like a spirit- 
ual romance, as, indeed, it was. Where 
Spirit-filled men go, spiritual romances al- 
ways spring up as in the legend the lilies 
sprang up wherever Jesus trod. He found 
in the city a small group of believing men 
and women already organized into a church. 
A small church was being built. 

"The new chapel was intended to seat a 
congregation of four hundred persons, and 
we were all very glad and thankful when on 
the evening of its dedication it was filled in 
every part. The next Sunday evening it 
was crowded, and we had to bring in chairs 
100 



CALLED TO CALCUTTA 

from neighboring houses. On the third Sun- 
day evening I went early so as to attend a 
meeting for Bengalis which had been ap- 
pointed for half -past four. While at this 
meeting I saw some Europeans come in, and 
supposing they had made a mistake, I went 
to them and explained that the English serv- 
ice would not begin for another hour. 

" 'We knew the time/ was the reply, 'but 
we have come early so as to be sure of getting 
a seat.' 

"For the first time it dawned upon my dull 
mind that our crowded congregation was to 
be permanent, and I remembered with a feel- 
ing of astonishment the prophecy of the good 
lady who had first invited me to come to 
Calcutta. It went on thus, night after night, 
until six hundred hearers were packed into a 
room which comfortably held only four hun- 
dred, and in the most sweltering weather 
many of these people would sit patiently for 
an hour or more, waiting for the service to be- 
gin. When it did not rain, seventy-five seats 
were placed outside the rear windows, and in 
addition to these the doors and windows were 
always thronged with people standing. This 
crowded attendance would have been unsat- 
101 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

isf actory enough if there had been no work 
of salvation attending it, but this was not 
wanting. At the dedicatory service two rose 
to ask for the prayers of the congregation, 
and this was the beginning of a work which 
went steadily forward with increasing power 
until, before the close of that year, three hun- 
dred persons had been converted to God. 
Many of these were members of other 
churches, and did not connect themselves 
with us ; but many others were drawn in from 
the outside world, and took their places 
permanently with us. The genuineness of 
the work was attested by the remarkable hold 
which it gained upon the more abandoned 
and godless classes. An inmate of a house 
of refuge was taken to one of the meetings 
by a Christian lady, and on her way home 
was asked how she liked it. 

" 'It's the strangest church I ever saw,' 
was her reply. 'It seemed to me that all the 
bad people in Calcutta were there/ 

"It was the New Testament ministry of 
Christ repeating itself again in our day. The 
Friend of sinners was there, and the very 
classes who are supposed to have no religious 
interest of any kind flocked around him, as 

102 



CALLED TO CALCUTTA 

in olden time. A year later I found, by- 
actual count, that twenty-five per cent of all 
the members thus gathered in had, before 
their conversion, been intemperate persons. 

"Throughout this year we had conver- 
sions, not only on every Sunday evening, but 
at almost every meeting which we held, 
and the work of revival, which was then com- 
menced, has never wholly ceased. Every 
Sunday service during the past ten years has 
been conducted as a revival service; and if 
it so happens that two or three Sundays pass 
in succession without anyone being con- 
verted, the fact occasions surprise, and is ac- 
cepted as a cause for heart-searching and 
humiliation. The work of conversion was 
very simple, but it was also very genuine. 
Throughout this year I met with many in- 
stances of persons finding peace with God 
while listening to the preaching. One Sun- 
day evening I went into the pulpit while suf- 
fering from fever and preached with no little 
difficulty. I hardly knew what I was saying, 
and at the close was about to dismiss the 
congregation without a prayer meeting, 
when it occurred to me that it might be well 
to pursue the usual course, if for nothing 

103 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

else but that the people might know that we 
always wished to see them turn to God. I, 
accordingly, called on awakened sinners to 
come forward for prayers, and, to my ex- 
treme surprise, sixteen persons promptly 
rose and walked forward. I talked with 
these persons one by one, and found that 
seven of them had found peace in believing 
while listening to my blundering attempt to 
preach. I was astonished beyond measure, 
and humbled in the dust, as I perceived how 
very little the success of my work depended 
upon the quality of my sermons." 

So great was the pressure for added room, 
that it soon became necessary to erect a 
larger building. Architects and builders 
were interviewed. 

"My instructions were very brief. 'I care 
very little for the outside of the building, 5 I 
said, 'but insist on a good audience room. I 
am like the Irishman, who told how a cannon 
was made by taking a big hole and pouring 
melted brass around it. I give you a big 
hole, one hundred feet long, sixty wide, and 
thirty high, and wish you to show how it can 
be covered with bricks and mortar.' My 
friend accepted the commission, and in two 

104 



CALLED TO CALCUTTA 

days not only gave me a good plan, but his 
firm offered to have the building ready for 
me on my return from America, at the close 
of the year, and nobly did they fulfill their 
promise." 

The building was paid for by the sacrific- 
ing efforts of this congregation of poor peo- 
ple, who were supporting their pastors and 
also projecting all manner of programs of 
what would now be called "social service" 
among the sailors who crowded the port, the 
soldiers from the garrison and among the 
flotsam and jetsam that abound in all the 
coast cities of Asia; where, alas! the moral 
wreckage of Christian Europe and America 
meets the product of the unspeakable vices 
of paganism. 

Dr. Thoburn's ministry in Calcutta was 
not only rich in immediate results, it awak- 
ened expectations among timid European 
Christian circles, and emboldened them to 
believe in the dynamic power of the gospel 
— first to redeem their own fallen fellow reli- 
gionists ; and, besides, so many educated In- 
dians were converted as to prove the value of 
work among the English, and in the English 
tongue to effectively reach numbers of Eng- 

105 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

lish-speaking Indians. But, above all, the 
metropolitan character of his work in Cal- 
cutta gave Dr. Thoburn both prestige and 
personal fitting for those wider movements 
which he was "called" to undertake. 

In closing this brief account of the really 
notable work done in Calcutta, something of 
its method and quality may be learned from 
the following excerpt : 

"While preaching a sudden impulse moved 
me to say: 'There is a person somewhere in 
this audience who has come in here with a 
broken heart. I know not who it is, but I 
have a message for that person. I am speak- 
ing for Him who came into our world to bind 
up the broken-hearted. He is here now, and 
he is here to help you. He gives me a special 
message for you, and has come to save you, 
to take all the bitterness out of your heart 
and out of your life, and make your life 
sweet and bright and full of hope and joy/ 
These remarks were thrown in parenthesis, 
I hardly know why, and then I went on with 
the sermon as I had planned it. At the close 
I asked all those whose hearts God had 
touched and who wished us to pray for them 
to rise, and I fully expected to see among 

106 



CALLED TO CALCUTTA 

those who responded a poor broken-hearted 
woman, but not a woman moved. A dozen 
or more men promptly rose to their feet, 
but no woman stirred. I was greatly sur- 
prised and perplexed, and for some time I 
waited and urged any timid souls who might 
be present to be courageous and ask for the 
help they needed, but still no woman re- 
sponded. At length I proceeded with the 
prayer meeting, and while some one led I 
turned to a man who had occupied a seat 
within two paces of me, and in that conspicu- 
ous place had risen in response to my invita- 
tion. As I knelt beside him he said: 'I am 
afraid you can do nothing for me. Mine is 
a very difficult case. I am the person you 
spoke of who has come in here with a broken 
heart. I am a stranger here. I was coming 
up the street, and was surprised to see the 
theater open on Sunday night, and some one 
told me there was to be preaching to-night. 
I turned in, and every seat was full, and the 
ushers brought me up here. I was startled 
when you said that some one had come in 
with a broken heart. I knew I was the man, 
but I fear that I am beyond hope. The story 
of my life is a story of utter misery/ 

107 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

"I saw this poor man the next day, and 
hoped that he had been helped and healed; 
but he left the city and I saw him no more. 
This was the kind of work God gave me to 
do in those hallowed days. Those were days 
of power, days of hope, days of assured vic- 
tory. Jesus Christ is forever the same. 
Would to God that the Christians of this 
world could awake to a sense of the im- 
mediate personal presence of Jesus Christ 
in their midst, as the Very same Jesus' who 
walked in Galilee and taught in Judaea, who 
hallowed the synagogue and glorified the 
temple by his personal presence. It is a sad 
truth that the modern church is too good, or 
at least too respectable, to attract the world's 
outcasts, or even the broken-hearted who 
represent respectable society. A really ear- 
nest soul in some way makes any average 
group of people uncomfortable by his pres- 
ence. He finds the door open, but the at- 
mosphere within is apt to be chill and cheer- 
less. The presence of the living Christ 
means life, peace, hope, joy and immortality. 
How slow we poor mortals are to enter into 
the rich possessions which we inherit in our 
Elder Brother's name!" 

108 



CHAPTER XII 
CALLED TO FARTHER INDIA 

The Methodists often tell each other that 
they are too widespread in their missionary 
undertakings. Solemnly they resolve in 
their chief councils that they must concen- 
trate more on narrower areas; but steadily, 
in one way or another, they seem forced to 
"enlarge their borders." It would seem to 
be in their blood. And, however one may 
agree in the general advice not to undertake 
what cannot be well done, it is a more difficult 
matter to refuse to believe, when all the facts 
are before one, that many of these adven- 
tures of extension are not manifestly born of 
the acknowledged leadership of the Holy 
Spirit. 

In considering this matter there cannot 
but be noted a sharp distinction between 
new missions projected by those on the field 
and by those whose only connection with 
such new openings is to see them made, 
with scant knowledge of existing conditions 

109 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

and with very partial provision for their 
financing for a brief term, then going off and 
leaving them to cheerfully enter upon other 
duties. The brunt of all succeeding diffi- 
culties falls upon the men, usually them- 
selves inexperienced, who have been called 
into the work and upon a protesting Mission 
Board already staggering under the weight 
of existing obligations. 

There is surely grave question to be raised 
regarding such careless and largely self- 
pleasing adventures. 

But when the extension is under the com- 
pulsion of recognized and deeply felt need, 
and when he who is pressed upon from 
around and above will himself largely bear 
the new burdens created, one is apt to judge 
more patiently and come to more favorable 
conclusion. The opening of a new area of 
missionary effort may be from thoughtless- 
ness for those who must later bear the load, 
and from even unconsciously lesser motives 
of self-advertisement. On the other hand, 
to refuse to go forward when God beckons 
to personal endurance for others, may be to 
sin against Him. 

Whatever may have been said in the past 
no 



CALLED TO FARTHER INDIA 

regarding Bishop Thoburn's ceaseless quest 
for new missionary adventures, it can never 
be said that he began anything whose early 
burdens he did not largely bear. Nor has 
time failed to attest the soundness of his 
judgment as well as the daring of his spirit. 
He has always seen in continents — but his 
continents have always proved sure footing 
for his own and succeeding footsteps. The 
writer does not know a single instance in 
which Bishop Thoburn's foresight has been 
at fault nor his forecasts failed to be con- 
firmed by the outcomes, whether in the pur- 
chase of vast properties without a cent in 
hand to pay fc*r them, or the thrusting forth 
of new enterprises into vast territories in the 
regions beyond. 

Wherever matters have been well handled 
by the immediate successors, the result has 
shown that the man's felt dependence upon 
the inner suggestions of the Holy Spirit, 
and perhaps a native gift of insight, has car- 
ried him to a degree of successful initiative 
rarely given to men. Among these great 
adventures of his later years are three that 
carried him far beyond the bounds of India 
proper and made him God's man for com- 
lii 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

pleting the links whereby Methodism with 
its virility and spontaneity of life girdles the 
globe. The earliest of these was his mission- 
ary trip to Rangoon, Burmah. This penin- 
sula lies to the east of India proper, across 
the Bay of Bengal. It is the seat of a dis- 
tinct type of Buddhism, the religion pro- 
fessed for the most part by practically 
all the Burmese who inhabit the lowlands. 
These lowlands, drained by the great Irawadi 
River and its tributaries, are among the rich- 
est alluvial plains of Asia. The great har- 
vests of rice, which are reaped as often as 
thrice a year, feed not only the ten millions 
of Burmah, but are largely exported to the 
less favored lands of the East. In these 
later years, since Burmah has become en- 
tirely a British province, large numbers of 
Hindus from India, together with a con- 
siderable sprinkling of Chinese from South 
China, are to be found in Rangoon, the capi- 
tal, and are pushing farther and farther up 
the river into the interior. In the hills 
farther from the coast are to be found many 
pre-Burman tribes, among whom are the 
Karens and Shans. The former of these 
have been largely evangelized by the Amer- 
112 



CALLED TO FARTHER INDIA 

ican Baptists. As is usual in all British pos- 
sessions in the Far East, there are sprinkled 
among these Asiatic millions a considerable 
number of English and part-English folk 
holding the form of Christianity, but for the 
most part strangers to its reality and power. 
This class has always appealed greatly to 
Dr. Thoburn, and since William Taylor's 
arrival in India he had caught even more 
clearly the vision of possibilities that lay in 
this Anglo-Indian community for the evan- 
gelization of the Asiatic millions that were 
around them. In response to many invita- 
tions Dr. Thoburn finally consented to visit 
Rangoon. The man's quiet courage and his 
complete confidence in the outcomes are most 
naively shown in his own statement which 
follows. Nor should the writer fail to call 
the attention of the reader to its compendious 
brevity and force. Dr. Thoburn is one of 
those rarest mortals who has done great 
things and has had the art of telling them 
greatly. Anticipating the outcomes of a 
visit to Burmah, he had written to William 
Taylor to send him a man for the church 
he would found on this visit. Questions of 
ordinary missionary policy, Board provi- 

113 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

sions, and the ceaseless questions of finance 
that always give pause to such movements 
had never too much place in Thoburn's plans, 
and even less in Taylor's, and so the doctor 
writes : 

"The project was brought before the Rock 
River Conference by Father Taylor, and the 
members of that body quickly pledged 
money enough to send a man to Rangoon, 
and about the first of June I was greatly 
surprised to receive a telegram announcing 
the arrival of the Rev. R. E. Carter and 
Mrs. Carter in Rangoon. I had hoped to be 
there to receive them, but they had 'pre- 
vented' me, as King James's translators 
would have said, and so I had to make all 
haste to go down and get the strangers set- 
tled in their new home. Mr. Goodwin was 
to go with me, and I asked him to be good 
enough to procure tickets for our passage 
by the next steamer. 

" 'Where shall I get the money?' he asked. 

" 'It was one of Napoleon's maxims,' I 
replied, 'that war must support itself. We 
must depend on making conquests in Ran- 
goon and getting the sinews of war from our 
converts.' 

114 



CALLED TO FARTHER INDIA 

"The agents of the steamer gave us re- 
turn tickets for a nominal sum, and, after 
a stormy passage of four days, we arrived 
at Rangoon on Wednesday, May 11th. A 
young man who had been converted at one 
of our Dasahra meetings in Lucknow met 
us on the dock, and took us to his home. 
Mr. Carter meanwhile had been hospitably 
received by Baptist friends, and had 
preached several times in a hired hall. The 
American Baptists maintain a very strong 
missionary force in Rangoon, but at the time 
they did very little for the English-speaking 
people. They had a small chapel in which 
they preached on Sunday evenings and held 
a prayer meeting on Wednesday evenings; 
but they had not been able to give attention 
to pastoral work, and gave us a cordial re- 
ception when we came among them with the 
avowed intention of making work among 
the English-speaking classes our chief ob- 
jective point. Their chapel, which held 
about two hundred persons, was placed at 
our disposal, and there we opened our com- 
mission, and most of our services during this 
visit were held in it. 

"Going to Burmah from India was like 

115 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

going from home to a foreign country. We 
were in a strange land and among strange 
people. The number of European and 
Anglo-Burman inhabitants in Rangoon was 
at that time estimated at three thousand. 
Very few of these had ever seen a revival, or 
knew anything about revival methods, and 
we were to begin our work on fallow ground. 
I found that a much larger proportion of 
the Europeans could speak the vernacular 
of the province than in Calcutta, and this 
afforded a hope that we might more easily 
and quickly reach the natives than we had 
been able to do in the latter city. We had 
no caste rules nor caste prejudices to en- 
counter, and altogether the way seemed to 
lie wide open before us. 

"The next week evening after our arrival 
we began our meetings in the Baptist chapel. 
The small room was not full, and it was at 
once apparent that a revival meeting had as 
yet very little power to draw an audience 
in Rangoon. I announced meetings for both 
morning and evening, and the next morning 
about forty persons were present. After a 
quiet talk I called for seekers, and eight per- 
sons at once responded. A deep feeling was 

116 



CALLED TO FARTHER INDIA 

manifest, and I felt assured that a blessed 
work of salvation had commenced. At each 
succeeding meeting the interest seemed to 
increase, and awakenings and conversions 
took place daily. We secured the town hall 
for Sunday evening, put up posters on all 
the streets, hired and borrowed seats from 
far and near, and at the appointed hour an 
immense crowd filled the place. I had a rare 
opportunity to deliver the message of recon- 
ciliation, and God stood by me and helped 
me. The immediate fruit was very apparent, 
and a new impetus was given to the meetings 
in the chapel, and our hands and hearts were 
burdened with work. At the two meetings 
on Tuesday we had thirty-eight persons pub- 
licly professed to have found salvation dur- 
ing the previous meetings, and two days 
later the number of persons who had pub- 
licly come forward for prayers had risen to 
eighty. The amount of work in the shape 
of visiting from house to house, and patient 
instruction and prayer with inquirers one 
by one, which the presence of eighty awak- 
ened sinners involved, will be readily un- 
derstood by everyone who has had experi- 
ence in winning souls. In Rangoon this kind 

117 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

of work was new, and we had very few who 
could help in such an emergency. Mr. 
Goodwin and myself were soon worn down 
with the incessant work into which God had 
thrust us. Our strength, however, was as 
our day, and we were able to hold up under 
the heavy strain to the last. 

"On the second Sunday evening it seemed 
as if almost the whole city had come together 
in the town hall. God helped me again to 
declare his word, and when at the close of 
the sermon I called on awakened persons 
who wished to be prayed for to rise, some 
thirty persons stood up in the presence of 
the congregation. It was a solemn hour. I 
have seldom at any time seen a meeting at 
which divine power was so manifestly pres- 
ent. Again a fresh stimulus seemed to be 
given to the meetings in the chapel, and by 
the end of our second week in the city the 
total numbers of seekers enrolled by us had 
risen to one hundred and thirty. 

"As my stay in Rangoon was to be short, 
we had not neglected for a day the great 
work of foundation-laying which we had in 
view. Our first class meeting or fellowship 
meeting, as we say in India, was held on the 

118 



CALLED TO FARTHER INDIA 

fourth day after our arrival. Our church 
was formally organized on the second Sun- 
day, with twenty-nine members and pro- 
bationers, but the number rose to fifty dur- 
ing the next three days. A Quarterly Con- 
ference was duly organized, three men 
licensed to exhort, a pastor's fund secured, 
and thus a thoroughly organized and fully 
equipped church was established in Rangoon 
within two weeks of our arrival. Nor was 
this all. We had applied to the authorities 
for the free gift of a site for a new church, 
and had received assurance which virtually 
made us owners of a fine lot at the junction 
of two leading streets, and we had also col- 
lected about one third of the cost of a new 
church. Mr, Carter unfortunately was pros- 
trated with fever most of the time of my 
visit, and as he was still very feeble, I left Mr. 
Goodwin to help him for another fortnight, 
while I returned to Calcutta. As I came 
away I looked back upon the brief days of 
my hurried visit to this most interesting city 
with simple amazement. We had gone forth 
without a rupee and had set up our banner 
in a strange land and among a strange peo- 
ple, trusting solely to the unchanging and 

119 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

unfailing promises, and mountains had 
melted before us. The banner was left wav- 
ing, and is waving still. God had been in 
the work, and the gates of hell were not to 
prevail against the humble band which had 
been gathered in his name. Christ had 
gained another victory. Satan had been 
again defeated." 

Thus in a few rapid sentences does he 
narrate one of the epics of modern missions. 

The genuineness of his call to Rangoon 
and the soundness of the foundations he laid 
may be judged by the later history of the 
Burmah mission. It has not grown to 
marked size, but it has demonstrated marked 
efficiency, and is full of hope and well-devised 
plans for a considerable contribution to the 
evangelization of this most interesting land. 
In all these labors for the Kingdom Dr. 
Thoburn was enabled to secure the largest 
results by his happy faculty of putting others 
to work in whatever way might be possible 
to them. He has had so much confidence in 
the ability of every man to do something 
worth while that he has always been ready 
to trust untried men with considerable tasks. 
He thus constantly inspired men to believe 

120 



CALLED TO FARTHER INDIA 

in their power to do things. It is surprising 
how often the things were done. And many 
a man to-day intrusted with largest matters 
remembers Thoburn as the man who started 
him on his career of usefulness. He never 
spared himself. He exacted full measure of 
responsible work from others. 

He says: 

"But if a patient submission to all that is 
manifestly one's own work is a clear duty to 
the missionary, it is no less a duty to lay all 
possible burdens upon other shoulders just 
as soon as God provides shoulders for the 
purpose. Division of labor is a law of 
Christ's kingdom, and it is more than a 
blunder for Christian leaders to neglect to 
utilize all the varieties of labor which God 
puts within their reach. Every Christian 
has a special adaptation to some form of 
Christian work, and it is doing him a per- 
sonal wrong to withhold from him the task 
which God would have him perform. On the 
mission field the temptation, or at least the 
tendency, to shrink from intrusting native 
churches with responsibility is very strong, 
and hence it happens that some missionaries 
are breaking down under some burdens for 
121 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

which there are ready and willing shoulders 
all around them. It is easy, of course, to 
go too fast, and lay upon a feeble native 
church responsibilities which it is not able to 
carry; but the danger of mistakes is almost 
wholly in the other direction. It is the 
natural method, the universal law of the 
kingdom of God on earth, that in every land, 
among every people, Christians should be 
taught to manage their own affairs and carry 
their own burdens." 

Particularly was he happy in calling out 
latent indigenous powers for service in the 
churches he planted. The reason for this 
success lay largely in his inner belief that 
God can find and develop his agents every- 
where. That evil saying "These people can- 
not be trusted to do things right," whatever 
the difficult task might be, was never ac- 
cepted by Thoburn as the truth of the case. 
He grasped better than most of us the divine 
philosophy which must underlie all mission- 
ary training of the church in the field when 
he writes: 

"The Holy Spirit wonderfully distributes 
all needed gifts for useful service in the 
church, and if a wise discrimination is used 
122 



CALLED TO FARTHER INDIA 

in the employment of the workers, it will 
generally be found that with the develop- 
ment of a Christian congregation workers 
of all grades, and prepared for all kinds of 
service, come to the front when needed. We 
must not despise the service because it is 
lowly. Too many are ready to take it for 
granted that God only calls men to what 
they regard as sacred or spiritual service, 
and hence they are startled to hear it sug- 
gested that a devoted woman has a call to 
minister to the sick, although quite willing 
to admit that her brother or husband may 
have been called to preach the Word. It will 
be a happy day for the Christian Church 
when every form of Christian labor is digni- 
fied by being recognized as a part of God's 
service and when all grades and classes of 
workers are recognized as equally honorable 
in God's sight, and alike heirs to a blessed 
reward. The seven deacons were not inferior 
to the twelve apostles whose burdens they, 
in part, assumed; and one of them speedily 
rose to great eminence in the church, and but 
for his untimely death would probably have 
eclipsed the fame of the most illustrious 
twelve. As in the case of Stephen, so with 

123 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

many a modern worker has it happened that 
a humble form of service is made a stepping- 
stone to greater responsibilities. We never 
know when initiating a new disciple into 
some lowly form of service for the Master 
what the outcome may be. 'To him that 
hath shall be given. 5 To the faithful worker 
will be given higher service, and the success 
in one trust becomes the earnest of still 
greater success in other spheres." 



124 



CHAPTER XIII 

CALLED TO A GREAT AD- 
VENTURE 

The story about to be told covers what 
Dr. Thoburn is accustomed to term his 
greatest missionary adventure — his call to 
Singapore and entry upon a mission to the 
Malay world. 

Between China on the north and east and 
India to the north and west projects the 
Malay Peninsula like a forefinger pointing 
toward the south pole. At the tip of this 
finger is the island and city of Singapore, 
guarding the Straits which separate it from 
Sumatra and give entrance to the Malay 
archipelago — stretching from Sumatra up to 
the Philippines and including such beautiful 
rich and romantic lands as the islands of 
Java, Borneo, Celebes, etc. These islands 
with the Peninsula are included under the 
general term Malaysia and are chiefly in- 
habited by the Malays. In recent years, 
however, their exceeding richness both in 

125 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

valuable vegetable products, such as pepper, 
tea, rubber, and gambier, and their large 
production of tin ore, has brought to them 
several millions of Chinese from South China 
and Indians from South India and Ceylon. 

The Malay Peninsula and some of the 
neighboring islands are British possessions, 
A large part of the archipelago, including 
Sumatra, Java, and parts of Borneo, is 
under the Dutch flag and forms the most 
valuable possessions of the kingdom of Hol- 
land. Many of the old-time Malay chiefs 
still hold nominal rule over parts of the 
archipelago, but the real control of affairs is 
in the hands of these two European powers. 

Singapore may justly be termed the 
strategic center and the emporium of the 
archipelago. This city of over three hun- 
dred thousand enterprising people has four 
to five thousand people of English descent, 
such as Dr. Thoburn constantly used as 
the base of approach to the surrounding 
Asiatics. This community's religious needs 
were but scantily met. Dr. Thoburn was 
perhaps the best-known missionary in India. 
Certainly among the English-speaking peo- 
ple it was so. It was inevitable that he 

126 



A GREAT ADVENTURE 

should come to desire and to receive invita- 
tions to visit Singapore and there also to 
preach the gospel. 

And so it was. Particularly did urgent 
request come from a godly Wesleyan, 
Charles Phillips, who in absence of any 
Methodist church was an elder in the Presby- 
terian kirk. Being an earnest man, he had 
built a chapel at his own expense, in which 
he himself preached to the humbler Euro- 
peans and served their families in several 
ways. Mr. Phillips wrote often, urging Dr. 
Thoburn's presence. Thoburn had the mat- 
ter in mind and began to feel the inner pres- 
sure — which with him always preceded the 
making of any definite program of action. 
He was not yet clear. 

It was in the fall of 1883 that Bishop John 
F. Hurst was in India to hold the Confer- 
ences. In strange ways he came to India, 
also impressed that a mission should be 
opened in Singapore, to connect our grow- 
ing missions in India and China. One of his 
first inquiries when he met Thoburn in India 
was, "What do you think of our opening 
work in Singapore?" His startled hearer an- 
swered that he had long had the matter in 

127 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

mind, and that of late it had begun to press 
upon him heavily, but there had been no 
available man to put into the work if a mis- 
sion were opened. Thoburn has always been 
very impatient of drilling oil wells without 
being prepared to supply tankage at once 
for any strike of oil. But when men like Dr. 
Thoburn get such a matter seriously before 
them, difficulties begin to disappear, par- 
ticularly when a somewhat obstinate Meth- 
odist bishop sets himself to help push things 
through. 

The result was that after much canvass of 
several names, Dr. Thoburn and J. E. Rob- 
inson named an unknown stranger who with 
his wife was on his way to India, after several 
years of absence in American colleges, to 
serve as a missionary. The Bishop had never 
heard the man's name before, and was in- 
clined to object. But on Robinson saying, 
with emphasis, "Bishop, if you do not ap- 
point W. F. Oldham and wife to Singapore, 
I don't want to have anything to do with the 
case," the Bishop yielded, and in the appoint- 
ments of the South India Conference for 
1884 there appears the line, "Singapore — 
W. F. Oldham." 

128 



A GREAT ADVENTURE 

When, a few days later, the Oldhams ar- 
rived in Bombay, they were told of their ap- 
pointment and that there was no financial 
provision for their support. They quietly 
accepted the appointment of lawful author- 
ity, for had they not been trained under 
Taylor and Thoburn to look into the face 
of difficulties without shrinking if only they 
might believe God and the church were bid- 
ding them go forward? 

But Dr. Thoburn was not the man to bid 
another go and not lead the way himself. 
If a mission was to be planted in a strange 
land among strange people without any 
previous financial assurance, he would him- 
self lead the way and show how it might be 
done. And so it was that in a few weeks 
there started from Calcutta a small group 
of Methodist missionaries led by Dr. Tho- 
burn and including the pastor designated for 
Singapore. 

On their way from Calcutta lay Rangoon, 
Burmah. Reaching here, they found they 
had no funds to proceed to Singapore, four 
days' steamer journey farther south. Dr. 
Thoburn's resources, however, did not fail. 
He talked with God and then called together 

129 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

the Methodist people whom he himself had 
gathered on a previous visit. He told them 
of his plight and immediately a good lady 
arose and said: "We must send these mes- 
sengers of the gospel on to their appointed 
field." She walked up to the Doctor and 
laid a fifty-rupee note before him. Others 
followed ; it was like a Negro camp meeting 
for a while. The giving was "hilarious." 
The proceeds more than paid for the four 
tickets to Singapore. 

Next morning on board Dr. Thoburn 
quietly said, "The God who calls will open 
the way for his obedient servants." 

On reaching Singapore this strange epi- 
sode occurred: There had been no oppor- 
tunity to notify Mr. Phillips of the Bishop's 
coming, nor did he know anything of the 
others of the party. But when the steamer 
reached the dock he was there. He immedi- 
ately walked up to Dr. Thoburn, saluting 
him by name, and then, turning to the rest 
of us, he said, "Well, you have brought 
these friends with you to help." 

Dr. Thoburn was perplexed and said, 
"How did you happen to be here, and how 
did you know us?" 

130 



A GREAT ADVENTURE 

Mr. Phillips replied: "I saw you last night 
in my sleep. I saw this steamer coming into 
dock, and on it were you and your party, 
just these who are with you. I was there- 
fore on the dock waiting to welcome you. 
Now, come along; you are all four to stay 
with me." 

We were deeply impressed, and the writer 
of these lines bears witness after thirty-two 
years to the feeling of devout gratitude 
mingled with something like awe that filled 
his mind. To Dr. Thoburn the incident 
seemed impressive, but not surprising. Some 
men are in such close touch with God that 
he can afford to be more familiar with them 
in the manifestations of his gracious care. 
There are several such incidents in the lives 
of both Taylor and Thoburn. Let your very 
practical souls that fear religious mystics 
and enthusiasts explain as they may, only 
do not forget the outcomes of such men's 
labors in the midst of this workaday world. 

Singapore 

Immediately after landing, the town hall 
was secured and such advertisement as was 
possible was put out, calling the people to- 
rn 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

gether to hear Dr. Thoburn, who was at that 
time the best-known missionary in Southern 
Asia. On the first evening a remarkable 
company gathered to hear the preacher. 

Singapore is the meeting place of the na- 
tions. Here representatives of practically 
all the various Asiatic peoples may be seen 
mingling with many of the races of Europe. 
The town hall gathering included many dif- 
ferent kinds of white men and women with 
a sprinkling of Tamils from India and Cey- 
lon, a few Chinese from the coast of China, 
and one inquisitive English-speaking Malay. 
Mrs. Thoburn led the singing. Young Old- 
ham distributed the singing books, and Dr. 
Thoburn took charge of the service. The 
text was announced, "Not by might, nor by 
power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord." 
With simplicity and directness the speaker 
stated that the audience would reassemble 
from evening to evening, that their numbers 
would increase, that not by might of human 
eloquence, nor by power of human persua- 
sion, but by the direct pressure of the divine 
upon their minds and hearts, many of these 
before him would be convicted of their sins 
and some of them would turn to God and 

132 



A GREAT ADVENTURE 

find newness of life. The service was so 
exceedingly simple and the effect was so 
profound that all the anticipations of the 
speaker were more than fulfilled on the 
nights that followed. Dr. Thoburn himself 
often referred to the ten days at Singapore 
as being marked by a very distinct sense of 
the immediate presence of God. At the close 
of this brief mission those who had openly 
accepted the gospel were called together and 
a church was born. 

It will interest the reader to know how this 
Methodist Church, the first in southeastern 
Asia, was organized. When Dr. Thoburn 
and Mr. Oldham went over the list of those 
who had become Methodists, they found 
there but three — two men and a woman — 
that could be mustered into office to begin 
with. It was necessary that a Quarterly 
Conference be organized. The appointed 
evening came. The lady was scared and 
therefore absented herself. One man was ill. 
The only person present besides the self-ap- 
pointed presiding elder and the venture- 
somely appointed pastor was John Polglase. 
Dr. Thoburn proceeded to organize him. 
He was elected to all the offices to which 

133 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

laymen were eligible in the church. Then 
finally he was made the estimating commit- 
tee on the preacher's salary and was asked 
what Mr. and Mrs. Oldham could be ex- 
pected to live on, being informed at the same 
time that he was the Board of Stewards, and 
would be expected to go out and raise the 
amount. The critical moment of the Quar- 
terly Conference had arrived. But John 
Polglase was an unusual man and he did not 
back out. He finally smilingly looked at 
young Oldham and then at the Doctor and 
said: "I think they can live on seventy dol- 
lars a month, and as to the raising of it, all 
I can do is to try, and if Oldham can stand 
the arrangement, of course I can." 

Thus was founded the first Methodist 
Church in Malaysia. The next day the Tho- 
burn party embarked for Calcutta, leaving 
Oldham behind to carry forward the enter- 
prise. This he did as best he could. He 
soon had the privilege of meeting some of 
the progressive members of a Chinese de- 
bating society. As a result a meeting of the 
society was arranged at which Mr. Oldham 
delivered a lecture on astronomy — a suitable 
subject, he thought, for the audience of 

134 



A GREAT ADVENTURE 

celestials. The lecture seemed to give pleas- 
ure, and the young missionary was asked to 
become a personal tutor of a prominent 
Chinese gentleman, a member of this society. 
As a result of this introduction to the 
Chinese life of the city a school was opened 
for the teaching of English to the sons of 
Chinese merchants. A building was erected 
which was paid for by the Chinese them- 
selves. A Chinese teacher was hired to teach 
that language, and Mr. Oldham himself be- 
came a teacher of English. The school pros- 
pered from the day it was opened. Soon 
there were two hundred boys and young men 
in attendance. A boarding department was 
started and the young missionary within a 
year returned to his Chinese patrons, calling 
upon them for further accommodation to 
make room for the increasing body of stu- 
dents. These men trusted him, with the 
result that still ampler accommodation was 
afforded, the Chinese paying the bills. That 
school has now been in existence for thirty 
years. Eighteen hundred young people are 
in its enrollment, and out of it have been 
born other schools, ranging from far Borneo 
to the north of the Malay Peninsula, so that 

135 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

there are now in the schools of the mission 
in the neighborhood of ten thousand boys 
and girls receiving a Christian education. 
The whole educational movement is pro- 
foundly affecting the life of these lands, and 
the very largest religious results must ulti- 
mately be the outcome. The last word reach- 
ing us from this school tells of a ten days 5 
meeting held with the students. Ninety 
young men presented themselves for Chris- 
tian baptism and are now under close per- 
sonal instruction. 

For the encouragement of other mission- 
ary teachers who may be spending long, 
weary hours in what may seem the drudgery 
of the day-schoolroom it may be remembered 
that all the criticism of the earlier days, when 
visiting missionaries and even wandering 
episcopal stars ventured the opinion that 
the messengers of the gospel would better 
be engaged in preaching the New Testament 
rather than in thumbing schoolbooks, has en- 
tirely passed away. It is now well known that 
the schools have softened prejudice and have 
won their way to the innermost confidence 
of the most influential people, and that there 
are many openly professed Christians who 

136 



A GREAT ADVENTURE 

were brought to Christ by their school- 
teachers who were completely inaccessible to 
the preaching of the missionary. The facti- 
tious distinction between teaching the gospel 
and preaching it finds no ground in the New 
Testament, where Jesus commands his dis- 
ciples to "preach the gospel" and "to teach 
them all things." The Spirit-filled preacher 
is a great agent for the spread of the gos- 
pel, but the Spirit-filled teacher has also his 
secure and worthy place in bringing in the 
Kingdom. Let each in honor prefer the 
other and supplement him. 

The Malaysia Mission, now an Annual 
Conference out of which was born the Philip- 
pine Annual Conference, is using all the pos- 
sible methods that modern missions have de- 
vised for the evangelization and uplifting of 
that vast territory where over sixty millions 
of people are scattered over the islands, a 
million square miles in area. Most notable 
has been the welcome given by the scattered 
Chinese to the teaching missionary who has 
also been the preaching missionary, and 
while the statistical results are not very large 
because of the mobile character of the popu- 
lation, the mission is slowly striking its roots 

137 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

all through this vast archipelago, and won- 
derful days are surely ahead. Bishop Tho- 
burn, the pioneer of this mission, who took 
Oldham there, has never ceased to declare 
that this visit to Singapore was the crowning 
adventure of his notable missionary career. 



138 



CHAPTER XIV 

CALLED TO THE MISSIONARY 
BISHOPRIC 

Dr. Thoburn's widening labors did not 
prevent his giving the closest attention to the 
strengthening and confirming of the large 
work already in hand in India. It will be 
admitted by all students of missions that 
Methodism has shown a fine genius not only 
for the planting of missions, but for develop- 
ing them when planted. The whole Meth- 
odist system is pliable and not rigid, and 
consists of checks and counter checks where- 
by the various parts balance each other and 
permit of sufficient minor change held within 
fairly fixed bounds to allow the progress 
without danger of wild plunging. Men 
under such a system can often introduce very 
marked changes in methods of procedure and 
administration. But they can do this only 
when they have earned the confidence and 
when the proposed changes have in measure 
been demonstrated. Nor can any greater 
tribute be made to any Methodist leader than 

139 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

to have him successfully inaugurate such 
changes through the General Conference, 
the governing body of the church. The safe 
inference is that the man who has persuaded 
strong men by the weight of his personality 
and the urgency of his reasoning, and a mul- 
titude of lesser men by the evident sanity of 
his proposals, is by this fact acclaimed a 
constructive builder as well as a man of 
power. We say these things because some 
of his contemporaries have expressed the be- 
lief that Dr. Thoburn was a great mission- 
ary, and a great religious pioneer, but that 
he was not to be trusted as a builder of 
policies and creator of improved plans and 
methods of administration. Lesser minds 
even when found in high places find it diffi- 
cult to believe that men can combine high 
qualities of diverse kinds. If a man be a 
great orator, he cannot be a good financier, 
Gladstone notwithstanding. If he be a dar- 
ing and adventurous spirit, with little re- 
spect for moribund traditions, how can he 
also be an ecclesiastical builder? 

Something of a new teaching in this re- 
gard may perhaps be seen in the Methodist 
Church ; but if it be so, it is one of the results 

140 



THE MISSIONARY BISHOPRIC 

of the presence of men like Thoburn. Dr. 
Thoburn went to the General Conference of 
1888 held in New York city as a representa- 
tive of the Bengal Conference, though he 
really represented all India. The matter 
that India desired most of that General Con- 
ference was a better method of episcopal 
supervision. It may be necessary for our 
younger readers to learn what led to this and 
what has come of it. 

Our foreign missions were then supervised 
by general superintendents who visited them 
once a year in succession. This visiting 
superintendent was usually chosen by sen- 
iority in office rather than by any fitness for 
a difficult and delicate piece of work in far- 
off lands. The general superintendents were 
men of wide domestic experience and were 
often of marked intellectual power. But as 
often they lacked any special knowledge of 
the differing traditions and temperament, 
the historical setting or current trends of the 
civilizations among which the infant churches 
were placed. 

In addition to this there were the lure of 
travel, the distraction of sight-seeing, and 
often the claims upon their attention of their 

141 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

families who accompanied them. All these 
reasons combined to make the coming of the 
bishop a matter of anxious speculation to the 
missionary leaders on the field. Methodism 
clothes its bishops with much power. Only 
the closest knowledge of conditions among 
which they work, added to ready insight, 
freedom from undue leaning to personal 
opinion, and a very large admixture of hum- 
ble reliance upon the light and leading of the 
Holy Spirit enable a Methodist bishop to 
serve satisfactorily in any land. Absence of 
any of these requirements makes success- 
ful administration impossible. It is not sur- 
prising that as the India mission grew in 
strength it was less inclined to endure a sys- 
tem under which a stranger came to the Con- 
ferences each year without close knowledge 
but with power to rearrange the work and 
alter the appointments of the missionaries. 
Having fixed the "Appointments," the 
bishop was gone, to be seen on that soil no 
more forever. All protests and discussions 
in the home papers only drew forth the re- 
tort that India was threatening the keystone 
of the ecclesiastical structure — the general 
superintendency. 

142 



THE MISSIONARY BISHOPRIC 

To a mind like Thoburn's this objection 
had little weight. The existing plan did not 
work. There was neither full intelligence 
nor continuity in administration. There 
must be some better way. With Africa it 
was even worse. The supposed threat of the 
African climate against life had made the 
visitation of Africa much less popular than 
of India and China and Japan. There were 
few, if any, visits at all. When any inspec- 
tion was undertaken, the episcopal visitor 
closely hugged the shore and at night slept 
on board shipboard. It was rugged William 
Taylor coming from the interior who de- 
scribed the bishop as "overseeing the work 
of God in Africa through a telescope from 
the deck of a steamer." Africa had broken 
away in 1884 from this method of "absent 
treatment" by the resurrection of the "mis- 
sionary episcopacy." India Methodism came 
to the General Conference of 1888 insisting 
that "intelligent, continuous supervision" 
must be given her expanding work, and Tho- 
burn, trusted leader at home and abroad, was 
charged with securing the legislation. He 
had spoken on the subject often, and had 
written on it most luminously in the Meth- 

143 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

odist Review and in the church press gen- 
erally. Of course he was accused of per- 
sonal ambition. This made no impression. 

Truth to tell, he knew matters could be 
adjusted vastly better than they were under 
the existing system, and he and the whole 
church knew that if any man were elected to 
administer India, there was only one man to 
be named, and that was James M. Thoburn. 
Dr. A. B. Leonard, missionary secretary, 
threw the whole force of his personality on 
the side of the innovation, as did several 
others who believed in Thoburn. As a re- 
sult the missionary episcopacy was extended 
to India and Dr. Thoburn was elected the 
first "Missionary Bishop of Southern Asia," 
for he had himself already carried Indian 
Methodism far beyond the bounds of India 
proper. A general superintendent was to 
visit India once a quadrennium as a coordi- 
nate bishop. But Thoburn was for the next 
dozen years the pilot and captain of Meth- 
odism from the Himalaya Mountains to the 
borders of Australia. 

How splendid the progress of these quad- 
renniums, how masterly the programs laid 
down, the impetus given, the results 

144 



THE MISSIONARY BISHOPRIC 

achieved, may be read by the student who 
inquires into the history of what Bishop Foss 
has called "our most successful mission." 
The writer would not withhold any least 
atom of recognition of the worth and energy 
of the other great men and women associated 
with Thoburn, but they would be among the 
first to say the largest place must be given 
to the clear-sighted, fearless, enterprising 
man in whom God had combined the flaming 
prophet, the brilliant leader, and the master 
builder. 

The further result of this movement was 
to cause the General Conference to break 
away from the tradition that all general 
superintendents must live in the United 
States. China needed intelligence and con- 
tinuity of administration as much as did In- 
dia. The bishops were therefore directed to 
place one of their number there for terms of 
service, gradually increasing in length until 
we now have two of the most conspicuously 
successful general superintendents making 
the administration of China Methodism their 
lifework. The plan has been extended to 
Europe and South America and Japan. 
But do not Kansas and Oregon and Maine 

145 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

also need "continuous intelligent" adminis- 
tration? They do and are now getting it 
under a plan of which the missionary episco- 
pacy was undoubtedly the forerunner. All 
the fears of the traditionalists have proven 
unfounded, though their clamors have not 
wholly ceased, and the church at large is re- 
ceiving more quickening leadership from its 
chief pastors than ever before in its history. 
And this may perhaps be counted among the 
by-products of Dr. Thoburn's prophetic 
vision and practical capacity to concrete his 
visions in useful legislation and plans. 

A few years after the Malaysia Mission 
was founded, Dr. Thoburn, a born expan- 
sionist, stood on the threshold of the mission 
house at Singapore and looking eastward, 
said, "I hope some day to see the walls bat- 
tered down and the gospel preached in the 
Philippines." At that time the Philippines 
were under Spanish sovereignty and permis- 
sion could not be had for either the circula- 
tion or the preaching of the Bible. An effort 
was made by the British and Foreign Bible 
Society to send two colporteurs to Manila 
with a supply of New Testaments. They 
were seized and thrown into prison and their 

146 



THE MISSIONARY BISHOPRIC 

books were burned on the Plaza, and one of 
the colporteurs, a Spanish ex-priest, died. 
His companion, a young Methodist local 
preacher, Mr. Castelles, escaped with his life, 
and returning to Singapore, declared it was 
impossible to circulate the Scriptures in the 
Philippines. Bishop Thoburn knew of this 
event and it stirred him to even stronger 
desire to preach in the Philippines. 



147 



CHAPTER XV 

CALLED TO THE FARTHEST 
EAST 

We need not go into the matter of what 
led the United States in 1898 to interfere 
with the Spanish domination of Cuba and 
Porto Rico. A very unexpected result was 
the bringing of the Philippines under the 
Stars and Stripes. 

While all America was intently watching 
the West India Islands in the Atlantic the 
surprisingly unexpected word reached New 
York that Admiral Dewey had entered 
Manila bay, had sunk the Spanish fleet and 
commenced the occupation of the island of 
Luzon. Soon afterward a treaty was ar- 
ranged, and Spain retired, and the U. S. A. 
became the custodian of over eight millions 
— Filipinos and Moros and wild hill tribes. 
Our people were embarked upon the strange 
and romantic adventure of being trustees of 
a people in far-off Asia, who were to be 
trained into fitness for self-government by 

148 



CALLED TO FARTHEST EAST 

being made intelligently familiar with the 
institutions of freedom and by being in- 
ducted into such intelligence and moral self- 
control and economic independence as would 
warrant their being wholly intrusted with the 
direction of their own affairs. The strange 
new task was welcomed with a sort of reli- 
gious consecration. The people at large felt 
that God was calling the nation to a higher 
missionary errand. At the time Bishop Tho- 
burn was in London. He writes : 

"The third of May was an eventful day, 
not only to me in London, but to a great 
multitude of Americans scattered abroad 
over the world. I wrote in my notebook: 
'Manila is in American hands! God be 
praised. Even since I began our Malaysia 
work those islands had been in my mind, and 
I had believed that God would ere many 
years open them to the world and to the gos- 
pel, but little did I dream that the work 
would be done by Americans !' 

"It became evident very quickly that the 
sympathies of the people in London were 
with the Americans in the war with Spain, 
and although some of the papers seemed dis- 
posed to criticize the course pursued by the 

149 



THOBUKN— CALLED OF GOD 

President, it was abundantly manifest that 
the people at large had taken a correct view 
of the principles involved and the actual 
position of the parties. At that time the 
position of England on the Pacific was not 
too well assured, and in the case of serious 
trouble Japan would have been the only 
strong power on which to depend. The 
Americans at Manila would not be allies, 
and yet it seemed to be instinctively felt that 
their very presence in that great sea had 
completely changed the situation. I could 
not move about in London without becom- 
ing impressed with the very manifest good 
feeling that prevailed among the people gen- 
erally toward the United States and the 
American people." 

He then returned to India and says : 
"We arrived back in Bombay on the 12th 
of August, and at once found ample work 
and care awaiting us, with calls from almost 
every part of India requesting personal help 
in some form, and at the earliest possible 
day. I at once began work by calling the 
Finance Committee of the Bombay Confer- 
ence together, and trying to arrange our esti- 
mates for the next year, but after two days 

150 



CALLED TO FARTHEST EAST 

of perplexing and wearisome work I wrote 
in my diary, 'Beating the air is the hardest 
kind of work/ About the same time Dr. 
Leonard wrote suggesting that I visit the 
Philippines, but as active fighting was going 
on there the time seemed premature. But 
I was giving very close attention to the situ- 
ation in those distant islands, and had no 
thought of neglecting what I clearly recog- 
nized as one of the most remarkable tokens 
of God's providential government in modern 
times. For a long time I had been praying 
that God would give us an entrance to those 
islands, and our missionaries in Singapore 
and Penang had been not only praying, but 
a local preacher had actually gone to Manila, 
but only to be arrested and put in prison." 

Soon afterward the Bishop proceeded to 
Manila alone, calling at Singapore. The 
Filipinos, mistaking the errand which 
brought the Americans to them, supposed 
that they had merely come to supplant the 
Spaniards as their masters. They therefore 
rallied under General Aguinaldo, and at- 
tacked the Americans in and around Manila. 
Bishop Thoburn arrived when Aguinaldo's 
forces were lying just outside the city, and 

151 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

his rifle bullets pattered on the roofs of the 
houses. But he was undismayed. God's mis- 
sionary servants are not easily turned aside 
from the errands of duty. And, as is ever 
the way, there were small tokens of the divine 
favor which greatly cheered the missionary 
adventurer. He came to the only available 
hotel, and was told there was no vacant room. 
He put down his bag and sat outside the 
door, asking the Master to direct his steps. 

He was rapidly approached by a military 
officer who said, "Do you want a room? 

"Yes, but there is none vacant." 

"Well, I am just leaving. Bring your 
bag in here and take possession. That's al- 
ways nine points of the law, you know." 

The advice was taken and the Bishop was 
safely lodged. He immediately began a mis- 
sionary reconnoissance of the situation. He 
visited the soldiers in the trenches outside 
of the city itself. So little did the Spaniards 
as well as the Filipinos understand the spirit 
and temper of the American people that he 
was offered one of the handsomest Roman 
Catholic churches for a trifling sum. But 
he was not seeking bargains from frightened 
and mistaken people, and did not even make 

152 



CALLED TO FARTHEST EAST 

inquiries whether the offer was being made 
by those who had the right to sell. Indeed, 
church buildings as such had never had any 
large place in Bishop Thoburn's thinking. 
He always sought to develop life and work- 
ing energy rather than plant and machinery, 
although he never hesitated to make exten- 
sive purchase when the promotion of life 
needed the outer surroundings. He soon 
found an empty theater named for the Fili- 
pino patriot Rizal, and immediately hired it 
for a Sunday service. He had already found 
an old time American local preacher from 
India, Brother Prautch, who had gathered 
around him a small group of inquiring Filipi- 
nos. With his help the theater meeting was 
advertised and an interpreter was found. 
When Sunday morning came, once more this 
servant of God stood in a strange land which 
had long been an object of his earnest de- 
sire, to preach the gospel which he had 
proved over the wide lands he had traveled. 
Some who were at this first Methodist serv- 
ice in the farthest East tell of its simplicity 
and deep solemnity. The prayers and the 
sermon were punctuated at intervals by the 
zip and splash of rifle bullets falling on the 

153 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

zinc roof. Among the notable results of the 
meeting was the finding of Nicholas Zamora, 
of whom we will hear again later. It is to 
be noted that the collection taken in that 
theater paid all the expenses and encouraged 
the Bishop to go forward with his plans. 

In the midst of the agitations of a city 
under fire and the even greater complications 
of the misunderstandings between the Amer- 
icans and the Filipinos there was born one 
of the great missions of the church under 
the fostering care of this apostolic man. And 
what a mission it was, and how wonderful 
in its present work and influence! Surely, 
the Spirit that whispered in Thoburn's ear 
many years beforehand that the walls around 
the Philippines would fall, and the people 
be given free access to the gospel was not 
absent in the events that led to America's 
assuming the guardianship of these fair is- 
lands. The presence of republican institu- 
tions, the blowing of the free winds of Amer- 
ican liberty, the large extension of the use 
of the English language, the closer acquaint- 
ance with the inner life and movement of a 
Protestant people, have all helped to make 
the Philippine Mission the most fruitful and 

154 



CALLED TO FARTHEST EAST 

promising of all the missions of the church 
in Roman Catholic lands. In a decade and 
a half a membership of fifty thousand is re- 
ported. And this very imperfectly conveys 
the very great influence exercised upon all 
life, public and domestic, by the evangelical 
missions of the American church. 

They not only have gathered one hundred 
thousand people into actual membership, 
but have powerfully aided in liberalizing 
thought, in informing aspirations for liberty 
with intelligence, in promoting thrift — in a 
word, in helping to lay in a people's charac- 
ter and intelligence the firmest foundations 
for both self-government and progress. 
Among the first of these evangelical forces 
in bringing a nation into the currents of 
modern life is that Methodist mission, whose 
genesis under Bishop Thoburn's leadership 
we have all too briefly told. The early days 
of the mission were full of difficulty and dis- 
appointment. Bishop Thoburn writes two 
years after his first visit : 

"We got away from Singapore on Wed- 
nesday, February 28, 1900, and arrived in 
Manila on March 6, and I took a room in 
the leading hotel for the sake of the seclu- 

155 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

sion and quiet which I hoped to find there. 
When I found time to look into the condi- 
tion of our work I found what at that time 
I called a 'tangled situation.' I had been 
peculiarly unsuccessful in finding a suitable 
man for the post of superintendent of our 
Philippine work, and on one occasion at 
least public attention had been called to my 
seeming neglect. Only those who have had 
the experience in work of this kind could ap- 
preciate the difficulties which I encountered 
in trying to fill this vacant post." 

"But in the end God so led us that the 
work was fully organized, and our mission 
became conspicuous both for its effective 
organization and remarkable success. The 
work, however, had by no means been neg- 
lected. Several army chaplains had ren- 
dered assistance, Mr. Prautch, who at that 
time was working in regular connection with 
us, was very active, and Mr. Goodrich, the 
agent of the Bible Society, was a minister 
of our church. The Woman's Foreign Mis- 
sionary Society was represented by four 
ladies, but they had not been able to secure 
a comfortable place of living, and were much 
cramped in their work. The outlook was not 

156 



CALLED TO FARTHEST EAST 

very encouraging, but when measured by the 
average missionary standard it was by no 
means hopeless. Religious services had been 
held regularly, many persons were manifest- 
ing an encouraging interest in the work, and 
the whole community was evidently more or 
less awake. The Presbyterian missionaries 
were working successfully near by, and I 
heard reports of other parties who were ex- 
pecting to enter the field. Our services were 
conducted in a hired house, which for want 
of a better name was called the 'Institute.' 
It served its temporary purpose fairly well, 
and 'our own hired house' was somewhat 
after the memorable precedent mentioned in 
the New Testament. 

"In the evening of our first day on shore 
I wrote: 'We had a prolonged meeting of 
our little band of workers this evening. We 
formally organized a Quarterly Conference, 
licensed Nicholas Zamora as a local preacher, 
and after a very long discussion decided to 
ordain him by getting him admitted on trial 
in a home Conference, and elected to dea- 
con's orders by cable.' I, accordingly, sent 
the following message through Dr. Leonard 
to Bishop Vincent, who I knew was at that 

157 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

date presiding at the regular session of the 
South Kansas Conference: 'Admit Nicholas 
Zamora to Conference probation. Elect to 
deacon's orders. Transfer to Malaysia Mis- 
sion Conference. Answer.' 

"In the evening of the next day I received 
the following reply: 'Zamora admitted, 
elected, transferred.' When this message 
was made known there was no small stir in 
our little circle. Time was precious, and I 
immediately announced that an ordination 
service would take place at nine o'clock of 
Saturday, March 10th. A small company 
gathered, including a dozen or more Filipino 
women, and I ordained the young man a 
deacon. The service was impressive, and a 
deep feeling was manifest in the little com- 
pany. The father of the candidate was pres- 
ent and was deeply moved. It was very un- 
fortunate that a little misunderstanding 
existed in relation to the church relation to 
the candidate. The father with his family 
had joined the Presbyterian mission, but 
when the Methodists arrived and were in 
great need of a Spanish-speaking preacher, 
he proposed that his son Nicholas should join 
the Methodists for the sake of helping the 

158 



CALLED TO FARTHEST EAST 

great work, while he himself with the rest of 
his family should remain with the Presby- 
terians. As the matter was put before me 
the whole transaction seemed to be a beau- 
tiful illustration of high-grade missionary 
comity, and not for a moment did a misgiv- 
ing arise in my mind concerning the right- 
fulness of the transaction. 

"This young man, Nicholas Zamora, 
proved to be a man of eloquence and power. 
He very rapidly rose in distinction, and 
proved not only to have the gift of eloquence, 
but of leadership also. He attracted atten- 
tion almost from the first, and beyond all 
question he was a power for good, not only 
in Manila but wherever the Filipino people 
were stirring. A great future lay before 
him, but his position was a difficult one, and 
his peril very great. Not many men of the 
same age in America would have been un- 
moved by the influences which he encoun- 
tered. To become an independent leader of 
a great local church, to dispose of his income 
according to his own judgment, to construct 
the framework of his church organization, 
to be the spokesman of a great community 
were things which conspired to lead him into 

159 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

a course which must in the end have proved 
too much for one so young and inexperi- 
enced." 

The next quotations refer to the unhappy- 
fact that Zamora, moved by a certain racial 
impatience for complete independence and 
by a desire to have himself elected the gen- 
eral superintendent of the Filipino Meth- 
odist Church, foolishly led a secession which 
in a few years melted into nothingness : 

"The reader may justly think that I 
should assume my share of the blame for 
what has since occurred. But at that time 
and under the circumstances, it seemed abso- 
lutely necessary to take a bold forward step, 
and it really was necessary. Something had 
to be done. Thousands and tens of thou- 
sands clamored for a free gospel, the sacra- 
ments of the church, and the solemnization 
of Christian marriage. Thousands of un- 
married parents were forced to bring up 
their children as so many heathen because 
wicked priests would not solemnize a legal 
marriage without payment of a fee beyond 
the means of the parties. I am sorry, very 
sorry, for poor Zamora, but I do not give 
him up." 

160 



CALLED TO FARTHEST EAST 

Once more the Bishop was in the Philip- 
pines. The jubilee visitation of Southern 
Asia in 1906 took Secretary Leonard and 
several other American visitors to India. Of 
these only the missionary secretary and 
Bishop Thoburn reached Manila. The 
Bishop was no longer in the fullness of his 
strength. But the wide outlook, his undying 
enthusiasm, his confirmed belief in the ad- 
vancing conquests of the gospel all served to 
cheer the young church. The Conference 
sermon, preached to the assembled Americans 
and Filipinos, was the last the writer has 
heard from the Bishop. It had all the old- 
time power and was notable for breadth of 
vision, the deep human sympathy, and the 
unfaltering trust in God that it expressed. 
In eight short years a Conference had grown 
up, and it was given God's honored servant 
to see the fruit of his own earlier planting. 
Soon after the Conference he embarked for 
America. And so there passed from the 
coasts of Asia a great personality who in the 
years to come will be numbered with Carey 
and Martyn and Morrison and Judson and 
Duff, as among the greatest of the princely 
men of the Kingdom. 

161 



CHAPTER XVI 
CALLED TO A QUIET HOUR 

Time is a furnace we fan with our sighs 
and feed with all our treasures. But there 
are some things even time has no power to 
touch. In nothing is the difference more 
marked than in the way old age affects men. 
To the mere selfish man of the world it usu- 
ally brings loss of interest in any but the 
narrowest round of personal matters, often 
attended by peevishness and strange suspi- 
cions and jealousies. But to one who has 
spent his life in the service of men, finding 
his inspiration in the felt presence of God, 
old age has no terrors. It is the "quiet hour" 
of evening to which he is invited. The heat 
of the day is over, the burdens laid down; 
time is now for trooping memories of earth 
and glad premonitions of heaven, and in the 
midst of it all the dearly felt Presence. 

Not long after Bishop Thoburn's return 
from his last world tour, the General Con- 
ference assembled in Baltimore in May, 
1908, The Bishop was still in much vigor 

162 



CALLED TO A QUIET HOUR 

of body, but at seventy-three there can 
scarcely be expected the physical strength to 
administer a wide and difficult field. He 
therefore addressed the Conference, asking 
for the relation of a retired missionary 
bishop. It was one of the high moments of 
the Conference when the beloved missionary 
appeared and read his simple valedictory 
statement presenting his request for retire- 
ment as follows : 

"Fifty years ago, while a youth, preaching 
on a country circuit in Ohio, I accepted a 
call from God and his church to missionary 
work in India. The following year I sailed 
for my field and have since been associated 
with our missionaries in that country. For 
this privilege I cannot be sufficiently thank- 
ful, under God, to our church and her noble 
Missionary Society. 

"God has spared my life and given me 
splendid opportunities for achieving suc- 
cess. To him supremely and to you, dear 
fathers and brethren, as representing his 
church, I beg to express my unspeakable 
thanks. But with the lapse of years and the 
increase of life's burdens, I have become con- 
vinced that the time has come for me to lay 

163 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

down my official responsibility and only at- 
tempt such tasks as changed conditions may 
permit. I therefore respectfully request that 
you will be good enough to grant me the 
relation of a retired missionary bishop under 
such conditions as may commend themselves 
to your judgment. Again thanking you and 
in your name thanking the church for the 
splendid opportunity you have given me, I 
remain, dear fathers and brethren, your 
obedient and grateful servant, 

"James M. Thoburn." 

Concerning this request The Christian 
Advocate said: 

"A small man, whose dark skin was in con- 
trast with his snowy beard, asked permission 
to say a few words. A hush fell upon all 
as he read the brief and simple outline of 
his life and asked to be allowed to retire from 
active service as a missionary bishop. It 
was James M. Thoburn, general of the 
forces of Southern Asia, the Christ-led 
leader of the Methodist advance, the man 
who laid the plans of campaign and has 
lived to hear the first shouts of the returning 
victors," 

Acting upon the request, the Committee 

164 



CALLED TO A QUIET HOUR 

on Episcopacy presented the following 
recommendation : 

"Whereas, We have learned with pro- 
found regret that our esteemed and beloved 
Missionary Bishop, James M. Thoburn, has 
felt compelled to ask for superannuation; 
and 

"Whereas, His long years of service to the 
church have been given in a spirit of devotion 
and sacrifice rarely equaled; therefore, be it 

"Resolved, That we recommend that this 
request be granted, and we hereby record our 
high appreciation of his life of magnifi- 
cent missionary achievement and apostolic 
activity, and devoutly pray that the bless- 
ings of God may be increasingly upon him 
and that his last years may be a triumphant 
coronation of his beneficent life." 

Dr. James M. Buckley, chairman of the 
Committee on Episcopacy, spoke as follows : 

"Mr. President, the committee feels 
keenly its inability to express its own feel- 
ing, and the feeling of the General Confer- 
ence, and the feeling of the whole church, 
and, further, the feeling of the whole mis- 
sionary and Protestant world. [Applause.] 
There has never been a man like unto him in 

165 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

the Methodist Episcopal Church, for the 
purpose to which he devoted his life. [Ap- 
plause.] With simplicity mingled with 
sagacity; with straightforward English, and 
yet at times, under inspiration reaching the 
spirit and the words of the ancient prophets, 
but more frequently of the Apostle John, he 
has persuaded us when he could not con- 
vince, and convinced us when he could not 
persuade. Consequently he has had his way, 
which he believed was God's way. 

"Bishop Thoburn [Bishop Thoburn rises], 
we have fought together in the Missionary 
Boards for a generation almost. We did not 
always see eye to eye, but we always saw 
heart to heart. I am glad and sorry to be 
here. Sorry because you have felt compelled 
to retire ; glad that this body and our church 
love you, and, furthermore, that they will 
venerate you to the last hour of your life, 
and think of you to the last hour of their 
lives. [Applause.] May the Lord bless 
you abundantly, and may you see yet greater 
things in India and greater things in every 
mission, and may your last hours be as sweet 
as those who sleep after a tired, but a suc- 
cessful day. [Applause.]" 

166 



CALLED TO A QUIET HOUR 

In response Bishop Thoburn said: 
"Dear brethren, I am overwhelmed. I 
have encountered many difficulties that I did 
not anticipate, and, with God's blessing, I 
think sometimes I have achieved greater suc- 
cess than I dreamed of in my youth; but I 
never anticipated such a scene as that 
through which I am now passing. My 
limited vocabulary will not enable me to ex- 
press my feelings even if my feelings per- 
mitted me to use the vocabulary. 

"As I leave you, I simply ask that you 
will kindly change the word 'superannuate' 
to 'retire.' [Applause.] I have not quit 
work. I expect to see some great victories, 
although not in the land of my adoption, but 
in the land of my birth, and possibly else- 
where. And my parting word to you is that 
you will carry with you always the convic- 
tion that when Jesus Christ said that he 
would 'be with you always' he meant what 
he said. He has been with me through these 
years. I have been enabled to say a great 
many thousand times that I think I know 
him. I am sure he knows me. He knows 
you and loves you, and has pledged his word 
that he will be with you. And when we get 

167 



THOBUKN— CALLED OF GOD 

that universal conviction through our church 
we will more rapidly help to transform this 
world than the most sanguine among us has 
ever dreamed. Now, may God bless you 
forevermore. Thanks for your kindness to 
me. [Applause.]" 

Dr. A. B. Leonard, secretary of the Board 
of Foreign Missions, closed this incident 
with a tribute expressing the high regard in 
which Bishop Thoburn is held by those 
among whom he has spent the long years of 
active service. Dr. Leonard said: 

"Mr. Chairman, I think I ought to bring 
at this moment to this General Conference 
a tribute that would be voiced by our church 
in all Southern Asia. 

"It was my privilege a year ago to be in 
the company of Bishop Thoburn at each of 
the nine Conferences of Southern Asia. And 
I want to say to this General Conference that 
the devotion and reverence felt and mani- 
fested toward Bishop Thoburn in all that 
country was most beautiful. The natives 
and missionaries rallied around him, and 
they regard him as having been their leader 
through providence for these many years. 
When the Bengal Conference was in session 

168 



CALLED TO A QUIET HOUR 

in Calcutta the trustees of the church which 
Bishop Thoburn founded, the building of 
which he erected, that will accommodate fif- 
teen hundred people, was crowded two Sun- 
day nights to hear his sermons; and the 
trustees, during the session by unanimous 
vote, changed the name of that church, and 
in place of the First Methodist Episcopal 
Church of Calcutta, it is to be known here- 
after as the 'James M. Thoburn Memorial 
Church' [Applause]." 



169 



CHAPTER XVII 
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 

Retiring from active life, Bishop Tho- 
burn decided to spend his closing days in 
Meadville, Pennsylvania, where he had been 
a happy college student in his youth. The 
citizens of that beautiful city welcomed his 
coming with the gift of a home. And there, 
respected and beloved by all, his spirit as 
cheery as ever, surrounded by his children 
and grandchildren, the Bishop spends the 
"quiet hour" which is given him before he 
shall be summoned to walk through the gates 
of day. 

In this closing chapter the writer would 
emphasize what has been dwelt upon all 
through these brief sketches: "A good man's 
steps are ordered of the Lord." The Divine 
Immanence may be constantly attested, if 
we will welcome it, by such illumination of 
our understanding and such inner persua- 
sions of our mind as will leave us without rea- 
sonable doubt that we are being divinely 

170 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 

guided along the way. His strong persua- 
sion of this truth is the key to the remarkable 
career of that most remarkable man James 
Mills Thoburn, missionary, statesman, and 
bishop. 

It will interest the reader to learn Bishop 
Thoburn's mature opinion on several mat- 
ters. The writer therefore takes the liberty 
of reproducing the Bishop's answers to a 
series of written questions. 

It must be confessed that the Bishop is 
not easily interviewed, for he has a certain 
impatience with any questions that he thinks 
to be merely academic. His replies, there- 
fore, are often brief, but they give us never- 
theless the gist of the thinking of a man who 
has thought more deeply than most : 

"Will you mind telling us how it comes to 
pass that the Methodists have succeeded so 
widely in India?" 

"I do not think our success has been so 
great. I can only recognize our success in 
a relative sense. I do not think we have 
really had very extraordinary success; rela- 
tively we may have had." 

"What has prevented our obtaining that 
larger success that is in your mind?" 

171 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

"The absence of capable agents on the 
field." 

"Do you mean among the missionaries im- 
ported, or the native agents on the ground?" 

"I mean, in the first place, men and 
women from the homeland who could enter 
into the same kind of work we were doing. 
A favorite theory of mine, in almost every 
kind of human effort, is that the most impor- 
tant agency in a given situation is leadership. 
It is needed everywhere. I have often been 
led to say that in the selection of bishops for 
the church leadership should be the first 
qualification. I have seen not a few bishops 
myself who could not lead at all in a new 
movement. We all know how the leadership 
of Christ has been placed in the New Testa- 
ment before the eyes of the church. 'He 
shall gently lead.' " 

"What would you mark as the qualities 
that you would seek for in these leaders? 
What qualities are we to try to find in the 
missionary?" 

"In the first place, he should have a per- 
sonal knowledge of Jesus Christ as the living 
Saviour of men, 'That they might know thee, 
and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent/ That 

172 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 

knowledge, I take it, should be personal. It 
goes without saying that a missionary should 
have, in a personal and practical sense of the 
word, knowledge of human nature and char- 
acter. In a practical sense of the word he 
should be unselfish, always on the alert to 
help any fellow being who needs assistance. 
A missionary must have no indolent habits. 
Indolence is an infirmity which is infectious. 
Missionaries must have capacity for spiritual 
friendship. I have frequently seen in the 
foreign land an illustration of personal affec- 
tion which reminds me of that which exists 
among relatives. Personally, I have learned 
to understand this by the experiences 
through which I have passed, and have often 
met persons in different parts of the world 
who introduced themselves to me as related 
to missionaries who knew me. I cannot call 
it a special kind of social Masonry, but it is, 
rather, something peculiar to the whole mis- 
sionary community, throughout the world." 

"Please tell us as you look forward, what 
your expectation is as to the progress of 
Christianity." 

"I have given much thought to this gen- 
eral subject. It seems to me both logical 

173 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

and scriptural to regard the general Chris- 
tianity of the world as intended from the 
beginning to be a common movement which 
either ignores national boundary lines, or at 
least insists on giving them a subordinate 
place. For many generations there will be 
separations caused by language. But I can- 
not believe that a separation based on mere 
differences of opinion within narrow lines 
can be permanent. Men may not be able, a 
thousand years hence, to see all manner of 
subjects alike, but, on the other hand, it will 
be impossible for them a thousand years 
hence to hold aloof from one another merely 
because they do not have a common vision. 
In spite of the European war, I still believe 
that God has a plan in reserve, to so direct 
all manner of public movements and meas- 
ures in Europe that these suffering nations 
shall yet be able to live in a state of peace, 
and not only peace, but practically loving 
good will." 

"I am thinking, Bishop, more of the Mos- 
lem and non-Christian world — what is the 
effect of Christianity upon these other sys- 
tems?" 

"I think all the other systems will melt 

174 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 

into Christianity, but Islamism will be the 
last. And I think Hinduism is already in 
a state of decay, and that probably Moham- 
medanism will be the last foe to be destroyed 
in the Oriental world. But, on the other 
hand, I have sometimes thought that Islam- 
ism will go with a rush when it begins to 
melt. I do not think that the full time for 
Mohammedanism has yet come in the East. 
The Mohammedan falls back a great deal 
on his political strength. He still thinks he 
is a big fellow in the fighting world. As a 
matter of fact, he is getting into very narrow 
lines. This European war will have a good 
deal to do with the future of Mohamme- 
danism." 

"What has been your position and what 
your experience in regard to what is often 
referred to as the doctrine of Holiness, or 
perfect sanctification?" 

"In common with nearly all young people 
who were really earnest in their religious 
profession, this doctrine affected me at an 
early day. I never was reckoned as an op- 
ponent to it, and I never was recognized gen- 
erally in Christian circles as a professor of 
this grace. I never was quite able to accept 

175 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

the statement which was made on this sub- 
ject, by preachers and others, and yet my 
sympathies were more freely given to them 
than to those who allowed themselves to be 
called opponents of such a profession." 

"What position did this doctrine hold in 
your missionary teachings, when you were 
actually yourself leading others?" 

"In India while engaged in missionary 
work I found opinions and sympathies and 
professions almost identical with that I had 
left behind me in America. We had the 
same variations in testimony, the same ques- 
tionings concerning the standards to be 
adopted, the same bouts at certain points. 
But, as a rule, I found throughout my whole 
missionary life that persons who had in any 
marked degree large spiritual power in their 
work were prepared to accept a profession of 
unquestioning and absolutely complete satis- 
faction of all actual spiritual desires in the 
immediate and actual presence of the living 
Christ." 



176 



CHAPTER XVIII 

PERSONAL TRIBUTE FROM 
BISHOP WARNE 

We add a brief word from the senior 
Bishop of India, who has known Bishop 
Thoburn closely and has been intimately as- 
sociated with him through many years of 
service. He speaks not only for himself, but 
for that great company of Indian fellow 
workers who rejoiced to follow Bishop Tho- 
burn as a leader, while they loved him as a 
companion and friend. 

The part and place Bishop Asbury had 
in making the early history of American 
Methodism, Bishop Thoburn has had in 
making the early history of our church in 
Southern Asia. A comparison of the lives 
of these two men and their careers calls at- 
tention to facts in the history of our Church 
on two continents that are full of interest. 
For example, Asbury was missionary to the 

177 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

newest, while Thoburn went to the oldest 
continent. Neither in the technical sense 
was a founder of the churches, for each went 
to his respective field with the second party 
of missionaries about two years after the 
first. Further, Asbury was a man of small 
stature, and in this Bishop Thoburn re- 
sembles him, both being about the size of 
John Wesley, and, like Wesley, each was 
noted for having good common sense, great 
tact, quick discernment, restless energy, 
much patience, far-seeing vision, fervent 
spirituality, mighty faith, and an iron stead- 
fastness of purpose. Methodist history 
furnishes the startling coincidence of having 
three men of such a similar type leaders in 
the planting of Methodism in three great 
lands. Both Asbury and Thoburn were 
acknowledged leaders, each in his own field, 
before being made bishops. In each field 
there were about fifteen thousand Christians, 
when these men were elected. Asbury lived 
to see two hundred thousand members of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in America, 
and Thoburn remained effective long enough 
to see a Methodist Christian community of 
about two hundred thousand in Southern 

178 



TRIBUTE FROM BISHOP WARNE 

Asia. 1 Who can predict what he may yet 
live to see? 

The American branch of Methodism was 
planted in India, as truly as was the apos- 
tolic church, by divinely called and spirit- 
ually equipped men and women. A story 
of these founders and their work, unsur- 
passed in Methodist history, is yet to be writ- 
ten. James Mills Thoburn early became the 
recognized leader of these pioneers. Tho- 
burn from being the most influential man in 
India Methodism soon became widely recog- 
nized by the other churches as a man of great 
spiritual power and as one of the "most dis- 
tinguished living missionaries in India." 

In Bishop Thoburn's unique and highly 
pleasing personality there was an uncommon 
blending of practical sense and mysticism, 
a relieving sense of humor, charming sim- 
plicity, winsome sincerity, and prophetic 
vision. Through the medium of his remark- 
ably clear, strong, and melodious voice, Tho- 
burn had a preaching power that brought an 
audience under the spell of the messenger 
and his message after the manner of Bishop 

1 In the years of his retirement this number has nearly 
doubled. 

179 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

Simpson, but surpassing Bishop Simpson in 
power to win men to surrender and serve our 
crucified, risen, and ascended Lord. This 
extraordinary combination of graces and 
gifts in Bishop Thoburn's personality, and 
the outcome of his life, impel one to believe, 
that as truly as was Paul, Thoburn was 
"separated unto the gospel of God" for the 
people to whom he was sent. May I briefly 
outline his career under his three distinctive 
characteristics — Thoburn the Evangelist, 
Missionary Statesman, and Prophet. 

Thoburn the Evangelist 

Getting people genuinely saved was the 
controlling passion of Bishop Thoburn's 
whole life. Rev. J. J. Lucas, a senior Amer- 
ican Presbyterian missionary in India, tells 
a characteristic story. "While Thoburn was 
yet a young man he was sent to Allahabad as 
a fraternal delegate from the North India 
Conference to the Presbyterian Synod. I 
have forgotten," says Dr. Lucas, "the fra- 
ternal address, but remember vividly his ad- 
dress to a little company of poor people liv- 
ing in the railway lines, who had invited him 
to speak to them. This message at once led 

180 



TRIBUTE FROM BISHOP WARNE 

to conversions and afterward to the found- 
ing of Methodism in Allahabad. He had 
been sent not as evangelist, but as a delegate, 
but saw his opportunity. Further, he util- 
ized a Hindu festival holiday for the in- 
auguration of the Lucknow Dasehra Meet- 
ings/' These meetings have been greatly 
used in uniting the various denominations in 
India, and for evangelism for forty years, 
and have become a model for conventions all 
over India. Dr. Lucas adds, "The secret 
of his great success was in that he quickly 
recognized opportunities for evangelism, 
and as quickly with courage and hope seized 
them." Let these two incidents tell a story 
of evangelism fifty years long. That evan- 
gelistic spirit abides in India to this day. 

Thoburn's conception of evangelism led to 
a revolution in India in missionary methods. 
From the beginning of Indian missions it 
had been, in the main, the aim of missionaries 
to secure converts from among the high-caste 
people, with the hope that since they were 
the religious leaders of India, they would 
lead the masses to Christ. The outcome had 
been exceedingly disappointing. Thoburn 
and Parker, a David and Jonathan, both 

181 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

evangelists, with others fired with the same 
spirit, meditated long upon the fact that 
Christ was anointed to preach to the "poor," 
"captives," "blind," and "bruised." They 
knew that no country had ever been Chris- 
tianized by a select few. They therefore, 
followed providential leadings and entered 
open doors, which in India were found 
among the lower castes. It requires courage 
and vision to do the unpopular thing, but 
this early low-caste work was the forerunner 
of India's present mass movements, and now 
other missions are following the lead. 

Thoburn the Missionary Statesman 

Thoburn wrote : "A true missionary is no 
dreamer. He is a practical man. His vision 
pierces the heavens above him and penetrates 
far into the dim regions before him. He 
sees the hand of God upon the nations." 
How could the writer of that avoid being 
a missionary statesman? Early in his mis- 
sionary career he began to look beyond the 
province, to which our mission was confined, 
because, it contained only forty million peo- 
ple, and began to look upon the Indian em- 
pire and the regions beyond, and to plan 

182 



TRIBUTE FROM BISHOP WARNE 

expansion. Here are some of the ways in 
which he showed his statesmanship. 

Thoburn early saw a similarity between 
the Roman and British empires. He re- 
called the way in which the Roman empire 
had united nations, built great connecting 
roads, and caused the spread of two great 
languages, and thus unwittingly, while op- 
posing Christianity, was opening its way. 
He believed that what the Roman empire 
had been to the Mediterranean region the 
British empire was to be to the Eastern 
world, for on her ships the whole Far East 
was easily reached. He saw that it covered 
three times the territory of the Roman em- 
pire and included many times more people, 
and that a common language was spreading 
through all the East. He believed that the 
British empire had been raised up by infinite 
wisdom and for a purpose divine. 

Within these empires Thoburn saw a 
similarity between the "Dispersion of the 
Jews" and the "Anglo-Saxon Dispersion," 
which he believed would go on increasing 
through the centuries. Early from his 
mountain home he looked out over this em- 
pire, and years before William Taylor ar- 

183 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

rived in India, Thoburn had sent to a brother 
missionary "A plan for getting Taylor out 
to India, and having him open our way to 
all the great cities of the empire by preach- 
ing in English to the English-speaking peo- 
ple," and to this end had invited Taylor to 
India. When Taylor came he joined him 
in work among Europeans, and as an out- 
come his mountain visions were realized, and 
the great church Thoburn built and main- 
tained in Calcutta made him known through- 
out India and the Methodist world. The 
Europeans lived chiefly in the great cities, 
and their evangelism and organization into 
churches led to the establishment of our 
church in all the great cities, except one, 
from Quetta to Manila, a distance of over 
five thousand miles. This work among Euro- 
peans planted Methodism in city centers that 
influence over four hundred and fifty million 
people. Great was such statesmanship. 

The zenana and caste system, child-mar- 
riage and enforced widowhood, had made the 
condition of India's women so desperate that 
missionaries had not found a pathway for 
their deliverance, education, and evangeliza- 
tion. Meditating long upon the awfulness 

184 



TRIBUTE FROM BISHOP WARNE 

of their situation, Dr. Thoburn at last ear- 
nestly invited his own sister to come to 
India. Here again the missionary states- 
man saw the need, the way out, and made 
the call to America's Christian womanhood 
to come to the relief of Asia's Christless 
womanhood. American Methodist women 
responded, and we have our great Woman's 
Foreign Missionary Society, now blessing 
the women of all non-Christian lands. 

As a missionary statesman, Thoburn was 
as much interested in the church at home as 
on the mission field. Some have even 
thought that the greatest work of his life 
for India, and the missionary world gen- 
erally, is to be found in what he did by way 
of enlightening, inspiring, and enthusing the 
home churches. For many years he worked 
to secure an organization as an educating 
and collecting agency in each congregation. 
It was his constant contention that to obey 
the farewell commandment of our Lord, "Go 
ye therefore and make disciples of all na- 
tions," was the chief business of Christ's 
church, and that our people had to no small 
extent paralyzed their power by relegating 
the cause of foreign missions to being but 

185 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

"one of the benevolences," instead of being 
the chief work for which the Church of Jesus 
Christ exists, 

Thoburn led the agitation for a resident 
bishop on our foreign mission fields. 
Further his famous article in the Methodist 
Review, on "Methodist Episcopacy in 
Transition," in 1895, initiated the agitation 
which after the lapse of thirteen years cul- 
minated in our present "plan of residential 
episcopal supervision," which in all its main 
features is what he had outlined. In his 
persistent agitation for such residential and 
closer supervision both abroad and at home, 
was he not away ahead of his time? Is not 
his statesmanlike vision now manifest to the 
whole church? 

Thoburn the Prophet 

"I have ordained thee as a prophet to the 
nations." God had spoken into the heart of 
Thoburn as surely as into the heart of Jere- 
miah. To Thoburn the word "prophet" 
meant not only "foretelling" but "forth-tell- 
ing" God's gospel message through the in- 
spiration of the Holy Spirit. He believed 
himself as much a man sent from God as 

186 



TRIBUTE FROM BISHOP WARNE 

was John, and therefore on a moral pedestal 
above that of the kings of the earth. He 
believed that it was never necessary, even to 
demon worshipers, to prove the existence of 
a Supreme Being, but that the story of a 
divine Saviour everywhere in the non-Chris- 
tian world was new. In Christ's holy life, 
dying love, risen power, and enthroned glory 
he always found a thrilling message of light, 
life, hope, salvation, and holy triumph for 
"every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and 
people" on the face of the whole earth. 
Therefore when preaching, his voice, coun- 
tenance, and message were all aglow with 
prophetic and holy enthusiasm. His favorite 
testimony was " While I preach the Man of 
Calvary is by my side" ; and in this assurance, 
so real to him, the great secret of his life is 
told. He believed that the time would surely 
come when there would be a Stephen filled 
with the Holy Spirit bearing witness on the 
streets of every village on the face of the 
whole earth. 

A word of personal testimony : Well do I 
remember how, in my young manhood, I 
came under the spell of Bishop Thoburn's 
virile prophetic messages, and how I was 

187 



THOBURN— CALLED OF GOD 

made to see, in their ignorance, the helpless, 
hopeless, hungry millions of India, and also 
that they would yet have an eternal inherit- 
ance in and with Jesus Christ; and that I 
might help a little I answered the call, and 
with many others have given my life to bring 
to pass the things that Bishop Thoburn saw 
in vision. Truly, he was a prophet to the 
nations; many of his prophecies have been 
fulfilled, and others are very rapidly being 
fulfilled. O how we love him! 

Let me close with what I think is Bishop 
Thoburn's greatest challenge to the Church 
of Jesus Christ. It sets forth his optimism, 
breadth of outlook for Christ's church, evan- 
gelistic fervor, world-embracing statesman- 
ship, prophetic vision, and apostolic enthu- 
siasm. Here it is : 

The Signs of the Times, the Lessons 
or the Past, the Indications of the 
Future, the Call of Providence, and 
the Voices Which Come Borne to Us by 
Every Breeze, and from Every Nation 
Under Heaven, All Alike Bid Us Lay 
Our Plans on a Scale Worthy of Men 
Who Expect to Conquer a World, 



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